Welding Tips and Tricks

Well this cup finally fell in two after about 2 weeks of seeing the crack when the cup was red hot.

Broke on the last 4" of 164" worth of welding I was doing today.

I figured eh I'll brush away the broken chunk and try and use it since I didn't feel like walking to grab a cup.

I wasn't expecting it but it actually worked quite well. Let me see the tungsten nice and clearly gave me a window to shove the rod into. Didn't even have to change my gas settings to get good coverage still.

Anyone else ever done this?

Or better yet has anyone ever seen a cup sold like this?

That arc was hitting that cup good.

Dropped torches and broken many over the years. likely that one got cracked after a fall and just took a while to finally give up for good.

Oscar wrote: ↑Fri May 20, 2022 9:05 pm That arc was hitting that cup good.

What do you mean by that? I've never heard of that term and don't even know what your seeing to determine that.

I want to guess it's the colouration of the cup that's the visual factor?

BugHunter wrote: ↑Sun May 22, 2022 8:52 am Dropped torches and broken many over the years. likely that one got cracked after a fall and just took a while to finally give up for good.

I'll never know exactly what does my cups in, havnt dropped my torch in about a year, at most it'll get brushed against whatever I'm hanging it off during a core flip etc while red hot.

I think it's just the massive weld length coupled with the amperage that does my cups in.

Certain things I can't use a #5 or I just melt the face of em right up/off. Even #8's get melted every now and again.

Tried the CK lava cups and while they didn't melt or crack I found the cost astronomical vs alumina and they stick to stuff/crumble when touched while hot, kinda crumbly like a cookie for the best description I can think of.

Toggatug wrote: ↑Sun May 22, 2022 10:07 am

Oscar wrote: ↑Fri May 20, 2022 9:05 pm That arc was hitting that cup good.

What do you mean by that? I've never heard of that term and don't even know what your seeing to determine that.

I want to guess it's the colouration of the cup that's the visual factor?

Yes, I was basing it off the assumption of the position of the tungsten. It looks rather recessed, so I thought perhaps the arc was heating up the cup more than it could handle and it cracked/shattered.

Oscar wrote: ↑Sun May 22, 2022 10:32 am

Toggatug wrote: ↑Sun May 22, 2022 10:07 am

Oscar wrote: ↑Fri May 20, 2022 9:05 pm That arc was hitting that cup good.

What do you mean by that? I've never heard of that term and don't even know what your seeing to determine that.

I want to guess it's the colouration of the cup that's the visual factor?

Yes, I was basing it off the assumption of the position of the tungsten. It looks rather recessed, so I thought perhaps the arc was heating up the cup more than it could handle and it cracked/shattered.

Gotcha, more than likely right just too much heat for the poor alumina to handle.

Believe it or not that tungsten actually started with about a 3/32 stickout.

I'll start off with a slight stickout and by the time I'm done I usually wind up with a slight recess, I've kinda chalked it up to just 'let the tungsten find it's happy place' and deal with the monkey ball throwing the arc here and there every now and again, ran many a seam with the arc shooting about 20 degrees to a side rather than straight off the tip.

Perhaps I should just get down to it and start tuning in my amplitude and everything the dynasty allows to see if I can keep a semi pointed tungsten at the amps I run.

Toggatug wrote: ↑Sun May 22, 2022 10:21 am

BugHunter wrote: ↑Sun May 22, 2022 8:52 am Dropped torches and broken many over the years. likely that one got cracked after a fall and just took a while to finally give up for good.

I'll never know exactly what does my cups in, havnt dropped my torch in about a year, at most it'll get brushed against whatever I'm hanging it off during a core flip etc while red hot.

I think it's just the massive weld length coupled with the amperage that does my cups in.

Certain things I can't use a #5 or I just melt the face of em right up/off. Even #8's get melted every now and again.

Tried the CK lava cups and while they didn't melt or crack I found the cost astronomical vs alumina and they stick to stuff/crumble when touched while hot, kinda crumbly like a cookie for the best description I can think of.

I haven't melted a cup since I bought my Dynasty. Used to do that occasionally, but being fair, I was hammering out the amps when I did it. Or, gas was not flowing as much as it should have been. My previous welder was a 315A transformer machine. Giant hulk of a thing, but I sorta wish I still had it for some high amp jobs.

I've never used those other cups you speak of. Sounds like I could do without those if that's how they act.

I've also never had an air-cooled torch. Always been water cooled. So, that really helps also. I want to say I melted cups on the old machine when I forgot to turn the water on. (Mine was one of those plumbed to the water line and just ran water to the drain as coolant vs having a self contained cooler like the Dynasty has.) If the water was off, it was hard on things. Lol.