Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello folks,
I recently was given a large supply of 2% thoriated tungsten electrodes and other goodies from a friend who closed down his welding shop, retired and relocated to a warm climate. I have a 0.040", 1/16", 3/32" and 1/8" electrodes in 7" and 3" all machine sharpened to a 30 degree point. In total I must have 50 electrodes. I know the members of this site and Jody strongly prefer to use the 2% lanthanated electrodes as a general purpose electrode. I have purchased a small supply of 2% lantanated which I have been using with OK results (OK due to my limited skills and practice time, no fault of the electrodes for sure!!!!). Is there any reason I should avoid using the thoriated electrodes for welding steel and stainless steel? The thoriated electrodes are all new but pretty old: brands like Sylvania and Linde which went out of business many years ago. Thanks for the input.

Jim

Hey there.

I have some Thoriated that came with my machine. I am far from being an expert, but for me they perform very well indeed on mild steel. I imagine the only reason you might choose not to use them is the issue of mild radioactivity. I wear a mask when I grind mine and try to be careful about clean up. When I have used all of my Thoriated, I won't replace them, I'll very likely just use 2% Lanthanated. Although I understand the risk from Thoriated is small, I am a motorcycle racer - I have enough risks in life already!


Kym

They're all crap, send them to me for disposal.

Look if you've gotem, use them, they were the go to electrode for years and still are for a lot of people. They also have that quality of feel you only get with "free" stuff.
Try them up against some Lanthanated and see if you can pick the difference, when they're all gone replace them with whatever you prefer.

You will pickup far more radiation from flying in commercial airlines or climbing Mt Everest that you will from grinding thoriated electrodes, if it worries you wear a mask or respirator.

Thoriated was the go to electrode for steel and ss here in Aus for ever. The different types are making inroads now, and evenmore so because the government has made it harder, so im told, to import radioactive materials. Because of this, we swapped to 2% ceriated, which are Junk.

Mick

NYWELDERJim wrote:Hello folks,
I recently was given a large supply of 2% thoriated tungsten electrodes ............................................ The thoriated electrodes are all new but pretty old: brands like Sylvania and Linde which went out of business many years ago. Thanks for the input.

Jim

Guard them with your life, those things are gold !! The story told to me by a welding engineer ( with a nuclear ticket ) was a welder went through the Rad tester at the end of his shift in a nuclear plant in Limeyland with a packet of 2% in his pocket, gave a higher reading on the meter, the "elf and safety " ***** seized it as an opportunity to expand their powers ........and the rest is history.

He commented he knew of more welders who suffered from alcohol poisoning, none from radiation poisoning......

I love thoriated. When I took tig welding class back 1988ish, we used green for alum and red for steel. My welder is 1960's era tranny machine that hates pure. While welding alum I can watch the tungsten burn up into the cup. I switched to thor and never had any more problems. After watching Jody's vid on tungstens I decided to do my own testing. I found a supplier that would sell single electrodes, so I ordered 1 of each, for test purposes. Most were crap. The only 1 to have good results was the gray band. 2% ceriated. This works pretty well, but I don't have much time with it. It seems ok on steel as well as alum. A friend gave me a stick of lazar to try and it also was total crap. As bad as pure tung. IIRC it was blue that tried to start a rumor a few years ago the thor was going to be banned by HLS because with a large enough quanity it could be used to make a dirty bom. In reality they were trying to promote their E3. Which I also tried and found to be less than good. I noticed that my supplier has a pink band and an off white band, both of which they call "rare earth". I may give those a try, for experimental purposes.
Keep in mind that these results are on MY machine and may vary on other machines

Thanks folks for the fast replies and information.

Jim