I Tested 5 Tungsten Types at 200 amps AC

[Music] I don't know how many different colors of tungsten there are but there's a lot of them and it can be kind of confusing especially for a beginner in this video I tested five different colors it's not an extensive test it's a down and dirty test let's hit it there's a lot more different colors than this but these are the most popular so it's red gray purple chartreuse and blue I used a Tungsten grinder so that all the points would be the same starting out all these are going to weld similar on DC what I'm interested in is how they'll do on AC at 200 amps first up is the thoriated which is red I've welded a lot of aluminum with 2% thoriated but you do have to prep the tip correctly or you can get nodules on the tip next up is gray again at 200 amps we're going to pump it up to 200 amps and then take a look at how the tip misshaped or how it held up looks like it held up pretty well next is E3 purple same scenario next up is the CK laser which seemed to weld exactly the same as the E3 lastly 2% lated blue now let's take a look at all those tips one of these does not look like the other but the other four barely rounded maintain their shape at 200 amps on AC I think we can all agree from that little down and dirty test is the 2% thoriated got those little nodules on the tip and sometimes those things can spit into the puddle or create an erratic Arc if you're getting started TIG welding any of those other four will do you fine you won't even know the difference until you get a little seat time under your belt let's take a look at some tips for sharpening electrodes I'm not one to try to talk people into buying a Tungsten grinder especially not at first you can get by just fine with an angle grinder and a drill motor or just doing them by hand like this just make sure to get the scratches running lengthwise super important all that said tungsten Grinders are awesome and you may want to think about one down the road eventually and one thing they definitely do is remove one variable when things start going wrong you'll know it's not your tip but there are a lot of ways you can sharpen a Tungsten just to get started one other way is using a belt sander or a drum sander there are a lot of best practices that you'll read about about using a dedicated diamond wheel or at least a dedicated wheel and all those make a little bit of difference but what makes the most difference is which direction you put your scratches here's an up close view of scratches running sideways and they're also a little bit rough you'd like to be able to pinpoint your Arc and have it light off exactly where you want it this is that in slow motion you can see this is not going to help you if you're right next to a cooling fin or something like that you can avoid all this just by having all the grinding scratches running lengthwise if you're not opposed to putting a little slot in your grinder guard this can make a real easy way of sharpening electrodes and you could even buy a diamond wheel and put on your grinder and use it like this it helps you get a fairly consistent grind a cordless drill run at low speed can help you get a really consistent grind that was a really coarse Hard Rock so it's not a really smooth grind but all the scratches are running lengthwise so let's get an up close view of this Arc start here and let's see what happens that's about as crisp as you can get no wandering at all let's do the same tip now with AC at 200 amps and see if we get any Arc wandering there I'm setting the amperage to 200 amps I'm going full pedal and the AC balance I'm going to set to 32% cleaning which is a pretty good allaround setting okay we're set on AC with a 332 2% lated electrode there is the arc start nice and crisp let's ramp it up to 200 amps and let's see how much it rounded that tip this is one of the reasons that I really like 2% lanthanated because it holds up well under high ampage I generally prep my tips for aluminum the same as I do for thick High amperage steel with a fairly blunt tip like I did to begin with just like this the pointed tip gives me a crisp Arc start and up to around 200 amps like I'm welding right here it holds up really well well it doesn't miss shape typically every now and then it will of course depending on what frequency you're using and things like that but generally speaking the tip holds up really well for me and for steel a blunt tip like this can really help get more penetration and also can actually help narrow the bead any of the electrodes I tested today would be fine for a joint like this on carbon steel but not all of them are good all-purpose electrodes the 2% thoriated is not that great of an allpurpose electrode one other thing to think about on types of electrodes is how well they operate at really low amperages and the 2% lated does really well there as do all of them on DC these box cutter blades probably only took about 15 amps if you've been watching this channel a while you know I personally prefer 2% lated for everything it just keeps life simple it's not the best for every scenario it's just what I use for what I do Hey listen my online store is at weldmonger.com that's how I pay for these videos we have tungsten we have filler metal we have gloves we have TIG fingers links in the description or just go to weldmonger.com

Channel: weldingtipsandtricks

Views: 37,552

Keywords: welding tips and tricks, weldmonger, weldmonger store, tungsten electrodes, tungsten types, best all around tungsten, best tungsten for aluminum, best tungsten for stainless, best tungsten, tig welding, tig tips, tig welding tips, how to sharpen tungsten, ways to sharpen tungsten

Id: CgS3UkQK_hc

Length: 5min 58sec (358 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 11 2024