How to Select Tungsten for AC/DC or DC Only TIG Inverter Welders

[Music] hi welcome to another edition here the last part video series in today's video we're going to be looking at tungsten now we've had a lot of requests and questions about tungsten selection and today we're going to be going over the different types of Thompson and what they should be used when they should not be used toward a review for those of you that are new to TIG welding this is very important to understand the tungsten is actually used as the electrode in the TIG welding process and of course it is removable in some texts you're going to find that the tungsten is listed as a non consumable but in reality it is a consumable meant from time to time you're going to have to stop and regrind the tip of the tungsten now we're not going to go over all the parts of the torch again our tungsten insertion or breakdown or whatever we're going to actually just stick it back in for now and you can see that this tungsten it has a nice sharp point on it we're going to go over a couple of things about the tungsten but suffice it to say there's a difference in the way you would sharpen a tungsten for a transformer welder or for a welder like an inverter Everlast TIG machine before we begin talking about the differences in tungsten itself let's talk about the tungsten sizes now you can go all the way down to 0.04 Oh tungsten all the way up to a quarter inch if you need what we have here is a 3/32 and 1/16 of an inch tungsten quite common isn't 1/8 but three thirty-seconds and one six things are going to be what you find locally at most welding shops now 332nd especially for this type tungsten what we have right here comes a wide range of an empress so if you're looking to do most general type welding a 3/32 electrode will work for you very well down to about 20 amps now if you need to go down to 20 amps or a lower or even up to 7 your 80 amps what's extinct will work fine for you now the dangers of putting too much amperage anytime soon as Joel eventually lose the tip very rapidly not only there are multiple sizes in diameter of the tungsten but you also have multiple links and this is a what we call a seven-inch tungsten and you're gonna have a 5 inch tungsten now you can break this tungsten into any length that you need especially for TIG torches with short back caps or medium back caps you may need to step down to a 5 or you can actually break the tungsten to the length that you need the negev already knows the paint on the end of the tungsten now this paint color identifies what kind of tungsten that we're dealing with if you see green tungsten this is going to note that it's a pure type of tungsten this is all tungsten throughout this rod here now the problem with ringing Thompson is that it's not designed to be used in any inverter however if you go into a welding supply store most of your welding supply stores are going to try to sell you this especially if you're going to be using it for AC or doing a lumen welding green tungsten will not hold up in any and verb especially in a net every last square wave inverter now that's because this type of tungsten is designed to run with a ball and inverters use a pointed tungsten so the arc will actually be stabilized with you if you're trying to use a piece of green tungsten in an inverter so if you have an in everlasting burner or about any kind of bird for that matter stand firm and tell them you don't want the green to tungsten they're gonna look at you kind of crazy from time to time and telling you have to use a crazy and that's not true any kind of other color tungsten can be used in an inverter for AC there is another type of Thompson that they use for AC welding in transformers and that's calls their Cody it knows their cover yet it's quite expensive and most places don't stock it so you have to transform a welder green Tungsten's a good choice if you're welding AC but as we said in an inverter it's not going to hold up pretty poor results now let's talk about the most common electrode you're going to find next to the green and in an inverter this will work for AC or DC you're going to find the red tip here now the red tip is denotes this is 2% thoriated tungsten now as I say you can get it in different sizes but you're going to find that the thorry it is most widely used in the industry the caveat to this is that the red thoriated is actually slightly radioactive don't go running for your contamination so just yet this has been used for many many years in the industry it's safe to handle it's an alpha emitter that means it won't penetrate the skin but you definitely don't want to break the growth dust from it while you're grinding now quick point I'd like to make about this is that tungsten color and the percentages in some of the fine details about the composition of these toxins will vary from country to country and even from brand to brand there may be some color differences in actually what I'm pointing out here today though the thorium has some radioactivity that's we discussed and there are some potential health risks there it is very good at what it does it is hard to beat in fact in fact all these other colors we see here are often compared to the capabilities of thorium thorium does have a drawback where sometimes it tends to blister or tends to split the end that's certain amperages or if you're on a sea sometimes with an inverter you'll see little nodules down here form if you've got too much cleaning action going on different customs have been tested at one test or one study at some time or the other and the results have really been mixed you're going to find some stage that recommend one brand over the other a lot of it has to do with testing facilities a lot of it has to do parameters that they tested with and you know basically how they want to display and interpret the results you know one of the important things is art starting and point retention in any kind of tungsten test now one of the best replacements that has come to market is the gold band here which indicates the one and a half percent lengthen aided tungsten now the one and a half percent seems to hold up in some test better than the one right beside it with the blue band which is two percent plan summated now either of these do show to be a very good replacement for thorium the one thing about being lancinating is that they it actually seems to hold a better point and you don't get the cracking or splitting that you can sometimes with the authority but you know the alarm starts seem to be equivalent almost if not but a little bit better in some tests some people say it may not be quite as good but overall this is a very good choice for replacement now we have said this was 2% lanthum they indicated by the blue band now some companies on some different countries you're gonna find a black band or you're gonna find some other color here but usually it's going to be a blue band at the top indicate two percent now two percent is not a bad choice it is a very good very stable of welding electrode now some people will say that there is a little bit more tip erosion with the two percent I'm not sure why but they do find that they one and a half does seem to hold the point just a little bit better half here is the gray 2% Syria now the two percent Syria was favored for quite some time before the research started showing that Anthony was actually outperforming this area not Syria it has great art starting capabilities but one of the problems with Syria is it will hold the point at a higher amperage level like the lengthen aided Tungsten's will so that's one of the things if you're willing a lower amperage you know you're not going to be pushing the tungsten serie it might be a very good choice for you there's like I said the study showed that Syria tends to be rode a little bit on the tip when it's being pushed but they say the arc starting capabilities are very good in comparison to their lanthum ate it or thoriated they're all very similar and we're talking about just a little bit better or there's not really a objective way to compare the darkstar capabilities that I've seen but anyway let's just put it this way Syria is not a bad choice either now we're going to deal with this last tungsten and talk about a wide category of thompson's that are available this is known as the rare earth category a lot of your tungsten makers now have come up with their own proprietary blend or special type of alloy that goes into it that's really not been subjected to a lot of scrutiny you're gonna find like a tri blend or you're gonna find different than the trade names for this type tungsten and they're going to try to say it's better and best and new and improved and all that kind of stuff and what it boils down to you've got to try it for yourself you got to experiment with it now this is 2% you trim now on 2% a trim is hard to find I special-ordered this overseas to be delivered to me so I can try it out now each rhythm is often blended in your other mixes of the special proprietary blends of you know Syria infinim and utrom and the they blend them together different percentages and different amounts and everything and what it boils down to no one really knows what's best everybody claims to be best so I want to try this purely trim and I may give a report back later on how it works let's talk real quickly about how to buy tungsten tungsten can be bought online obviously and this is where you're going to find a lot of your more exotic stuff like I said a lot of your smaller local welding supply stores and they just have green and red and red will work for AC and DC and in an inverter but if you can find it buy it in at impact because this is the most economical way to buy it don't buy it in a two pack or three pack unless you're just wanting to sample for the first time buying those small pieces like that with you know just a you know you're paying almost as much sometimes as you can get a whole tin pack for so I recommend buying a ten pack spend the 30 bucks it's going to take three it's going to be your cheapest in that respect these others are going to be a very prices you know if you buy them online sometimes you can find certain people will sell these all the same price and that's great but sometimes you'll find their quantities are limited so what I would do is if I'm going to buy something I would buy it in a 10 pack that way I know I enough if I have a several pieces sharpened up I'm not taking as much time to stop and rewind while I'm welding so this is a good thing to have because you've got ten pieces and you have ten Tungsten's ready to go especially if you're learning and you're dipping and you're having a lot of trouble sometimes the ten pack will save your day well with this short video we hope we've cleared up any questions you might have about tungsten selection especially for inverter welders now if you have any more questions please feel free to give us a call at the number listed at the end of the video and as always thanks for watching you

Channel: Everlast Welders

Views: 154,746

Rating: 4.8109889 out of 5

Keywords: Tungsten, Ceriated, Thoriated, Lanthanated, 1.5%, 2%, Everlast, Miller, Lincoln, ESAB, Thermal Arc, Longevity, Inverter Welder, Selection, AC/DC, DC, Electrode, Rare Earth, Blends, Alloys, Aluminum Welding

Id: F4u916fd46U

Length: 12min 39sec (759 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 03 2012