Welding Tips and Tricks

I am still quite new at tig welding, but I feel I am getting quite good a t tungsten sharpening. So, it goes without saying that my tungsten are getting shorter and I need to buy some new ones. The first time I purchased them I got the cheapest I could fine, now that I am getting better is it worth spending 2 to 3 times as much for a known brand? If so, what brand do you recommend? I have been using 2% lanthinated .

Mark

I've generally bought these:

https://www.amazon.com/ABN-Tungsten-Ele ... d+tungsten

but I was given a pack of the diamond ground 2% lanthanated and can't tell the difference. It doesn't hurt to play around with the expensive ones but don't think that they are better just because they cost more.

-Sandow

If you're new get the cheap stuff til you quit dipping. I bought some 2% lanthanated from HTP and it was cheap and works great. Thoriated works good too but you will glow in the dark after you sharpen it and breath the dust No difference in quality...buy what you can afford...all the same...you need to resharpen even if you don't dip so get used to it.

There are some crappy electrodes coming out of prc but also good ones. If you have good experience with your cheapies, stay with them - they're about as good as anything expensive.

Thanks

Still learning and dipping so cheap it is

IMO, It would take a lot of trials, and serious data collection/acquisition by a very formally trained person to detect the differences between a lot of the commonly available tungstens. Just the mere fact that you need a large sample group to have statistically meaningful data rules out a lot of "at-home findings".

Over many years, I've only had two quality issues with tungsten.

Once I had a pack of 2% Thoriated that would splinter when ran near it's upper limit, and once I had a pack of "pure" that would make "broccoli" instead of a ball. Both were Radnor brand (distributed by AirGas), and as I understand, they multi-source their tungsten and package it under one label. The next pack of each, also Radnor, performed just fine, and I've not encountered either problem since.

If you're not getting some screwball result like this, I wouldn't worry about spending big coin on the fancy stuff. The exception is if you're doing some high-precision work where everything you use has to be traceable, and you need a certified analysis of the tungsten for your records.

Steve S

Oscar wrote:IMO, It would take a lot of trials, and serious data collection/acquisition by a very formally trained person to detect the differences between a lot of the commonly available tungstens. Just the mere fact that you need a large sample group to have statistically meaningful data rules out a lot of "at-home findings".

I hope God or Jody doesn't strike me dead but Mr.Tig has a vid out on comparing different electrodes in an automated machine that makes the test even. Lanthanated and Thoriated were the 2 best of the group. I don't have the balls to post the link

Don't get me wrong, a plethora of tests can be done by anyone via a multitude of means. But there are things like batch variations and things like that.

Here's links to a couple video tests Jody did on electrodes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzEuV83UGMY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpanERwagaU

Oscar wrote:Don't get me wrong, a plethora of tests can be done by anyone via a multitude of means. But there are things like batch variations and things like that.

Operators personal opinion,will rule in the end.
Just as I have my favourites,others will too.
Gather knowledge,acquire experience,use what is at hand to get the job done.
This forum will help