Welding Tips and Tricks

hey all, long time since ive been here, Ive got a quick question. I have a decent size stainless project coming up that requires some tig work. Jody's videos shows up to use Blue 2% lan always and I usually have. well this time the LWS rep at work brought me a pack of purple tungsten and I believe it says 1.5% Lan and a quick google search calls it rare earth. Can I use purple for this job or just go back to blue instead? I have never used purple (rare earth) and if they aren't any good I wont use them. Please any information would be appreciated!!! on back up I have some red I can use in the mean time and I believe those will suffice if I have to.

IMO, for DC TIG, there won't be too much of a difference. On AC there are vastly different behaviors that have been observed. Justin @ TFS did some extensive testing; very very detailed and thorough, IMO.

ok so I should be fine with what I have the... good to know, ill find the video from TFS and check that out too. thanks guys have a good week!

Purple means it's E3 tungsten. In theory it should be fine. They cost more and some people like them. I have three buddies who tried them, all three reported that the E3 split and pooped into their welds. E3 went into the bin and back to blue. That's good enough for me, not that I was tempted to change.

the multi mix tungsten can vary a lot. everyone has a different mix

imho stick with well known brands.
the CK LaYZr is meant to be quiet good. however its really made for robotic welding. have very good erosion but i think it suffers from arc starts (by mem) which is less of an issue with robotic welding.