Welding Tips and Tricks

anyone have experience with 2 percent lanthanated electrodes? I always use 2 percent thoriated. I ready somewhere that lanthanated are a better all purpose electrode and work better on AC than the thoriated.

also, I was thinking about a tungsten sharpener. Are they a waste of money? I used one once and welded for a while with the electrode i sharpened... I really couldnt tell any difference.

I'm mobile & it makes a nice little investment. If you aren't, hard to beat a dedicated grinder. I couldn't tell much of a difference either. only my 2 cents-
take care-
mister bobo

I am new to TIG wlding and I found by reading one of the forums that I use a belt sander and drill motor, I stick the electrode in the drill and spin it slow in the drill and can get really nice points , real fast,and nice angle, Just use a new belt and it cuts great..
Gary

I bought a replacement diamond wheel from harbor freight for around 5 bucks and attached it to my bench grinder and just spin the tungsten slow and on the down side to get the shape i want.

the reason people are using lanthanated instead of thoriated is because there is some concern about the dust when grinding thoriated since it is radioactive. i think Jodi says " That this is the one time the fix is better than the original". there are enclosed wet grinders that capture the tungsten dust. I guess i would buy a grinder if i was into production work or welding for something like aerospace but not for occasional welding at home.

martin