TIG Tungstens & Gas

Use 1.5% Lanthanated for everything if your esab is an inverter. Ceriated is good for thin aluminum dcrp, but underdrive the tungsten or else cerium migration will make a mess of it. Zirconiated is supposed to ensure the purest aluminum welds, but will ball up making it a little harder.to pinpoint heat Red, thoriated tungsten, is best used by very small children working very long hours in third world coal mines where occupational safety and longevity is not a concern, otherwise avoid holding it, grinding it, or welding with it. ..."Thorium can be taken into the body by eating food, drinking water, or breathing air. Most thorium that is inhaled or ingested in food and water is excreted within a few days, with only a small fraction being absorbed into the bloodstream. Gastrointestinal absorption from food or water is the principal source of internally deposited thorium in the general population. About 0.02 to 0.05% of the amount ingested is absorbed into the bloodstream through the intestines. Of the amount entering the blood, about 70% deposits in bone where it is retained with a biological half-life of about 22 years, 4% deposits in the liver where it is retained with a biological half-life of 700 days, and 16% is uniformly distributed to all other organs and tissues of the body where it is cleared with a biological half-life of 700 days. (per simplified models that do not reflect intermediate redistribution). Most of the remaining 10% is directly excreted. Thorium is predominantly deposited on the endosteal surfaces of mineral bone and only slowly redistributes throughout the bone volume.The main health concern for environmental exposures is generally bone cancer.Exposure to thorium in the air can lead to increased risk of cancers of the lung, pancreas and blood. Exposure to thorium internally leads to increased risk of liver diseases. This element has no known biological role..."

You use pure Ar (argon gas) for all TIG, don't you? TIG is penetrative regardless, including with pure Ar. It's in the nature of the process.

Never used it myself - but following is common in Europe...

You can use Ar/Hydrogen with stainless. Austenitic stainless steels (304's, 316's, etc) are just about immune to hydrogen, so no prob. doing this. The hydrogen makes the arc more penetrative, as one would expect (technically it is linked to the same reason that xx10 and xx11 stick electrodes are penetrative). Ar/H2 mixtures are popular here among stainless welding specialists, so it seems. Ar/2%H2 would be an example.

Can't use it for anything else (would be OK for sheet mild steel, to be honest, but no-one bothers (?)). Definitely not Al.

You wouldn't pay for the rental of a full bottle unless you were a very enthusiatic amateur doing a huge amount of stainless.

RS

it is free !!!! go to millers web site and read up on some tech articles , you will get more knowledge than you are asking for.

start here

this is a realy good one too : these are basicly online books , the same 88 page book that came with my welder this one specificaly talks about tungsten

page 14 section 5-2 talks about different shielding gasses

wow, great articles. the gtawbook.pdf says DO NOT USE PURE TUNGSTEN ON AC INVERTER. why is this? i recently ordered a 10pack of 1/8" and 3/32" pure tungsten electrodes !! my order was shipped yesterday.

anyone want these pure tungstens? i paid a total of $40.30 for the tungsten. is $40 + free FedEx shipping a good sale for anyone?

thanks for all the info, i should have read-up before buying the "green".

thanks

acrobat-ants wrote:

various

Pure tungsten used to be used for aluminum welding. It can't take the amperage as well as other tungsten "alloys" and if your doing x-ray quality work you would NEVER use pure as it could contaminate the weld. I always use zirconium for aluminum. But that's just me