What's the odor you smell when you tig. I'm particularly thinking of tigging aluminum because that's where I notice it the most. It almost smells like chlorine, but not quite. Is that ozone? I don't tig often enought to remember whether it's there when welding stainless, but I was reminded of the odor when I tigged some aluminum yesterday. I first noticed it when I took a welding class earlier in the fall and was working on aluminum.
RWL
I had wondered about that many times. I think it is a combination of ozone, heating up of the collet (sometimes new with some coating), heating up of coolant, heating up of oxidation on metal, paint on metal, oil on metal, "stuff on metal", etc. That's a speedy heat up and there are a lot of things that can be given off during the rapid increase in temperature. Stainless has to have some residual goo after you pull off the white taping.
Steve
For me, it mostly depends on what I ate last night.
iLOL
associated with the scorch marks on the floor behind me ;)
Yep. Everything getting hot will release vapors, with associated odors. Since cleanliness of the base metal and filler metal is so critical to a sound weld, most of what you are smelling is hopefully metal fume and ionized argon (I'm not sure if that latter has a smell).
New tig torches, cups, collets, gas lenses, hoses, metal cleaned on only one side, any or all of these could be creating the scent you are smelling.
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