Needs Pictures: 0
Picture(s) thanks: 0
Results 1 to 10 of 10
Thread: aluminium tig question
-
8th October 2014, 08:03 PM #1New Member
- Join Date
- Sep 2014
- Location
- australia
- Posts
- 9
aluminium tig question
Hi Guys im starting to learn tig welding and have a few questions, what colour tugstan do u use for ali and size and why ive tried red at 1.6 mm was starting to go ok until i tried a filet weld cheers Greg
-
8th October 2014 08:03 PM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
- Join Date
- Always
- Location
- Advertising world
- Posts
- Many
-
8th October 2014, 09:39 PM #2SENIOR MEMBER
- Join Date
- Sep 2006
- Location
- Mallacoota,VIC,Australia
- Age
- 53
- Posts
- 656
HI Kelack,
You use a Zirconiated Tungsten (white tip) for Aluminium (AC mode), I normally use a 2.4mm diameter one. For other Metals in DC mode you use a Thoriated Tungsten (red tip). There is one that can be used for either Aluminium or Steel but only on the Inverter welding Machines, but I can't remember what it is. If you stick to just Red and White you shouldn't have any dramas.All The Best steran50 Stewart
The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.
-
8th October 2014, 10:11 PM #3Senior Member
- Join Date
- Sep 2008
- Location
- Perth
- Posts
- 363
I use 2% lanthanated. That's the one that Jody reckoned works best all round.
-
9th October 2014, 01:04 AM #4GOLD MEMBER
- Join Date
- May 2011
- Location
- Murray Bridge SA
- Posts
- 3,339
The way that I remember which to use, is RED for stainless, as when welding it, it becomes red and WHITE for aluminium, as ally looks white when welding. Thickness depends on thickness of material being welded.
Kryn
-
10th October 2014, 08:30 AM #5GOLD MEMBER
- Join Date
- Sep 2010
- Location
- Lebrina
- Posts
- 1,099
I know that many sources recommend Lanthanated and Ceriated electrodes, but I never really saw the point when you have to prepare them differently for AC and DC work. Better to have a DC electrode and an AC one to my way of thinking.
If I were restricted to one size, it would be 2.4mm, as with this you can reach down to 1.2mm and up to 6mm. Otherwise 2.4mm Zirconiated and 1.6mm Thoriated get my vote.
-
10th October 2014, 09:17 AM #6Senior Member
- Join Date
- Sep 2008
- Location
- Perth
- Posts
- 363
-
10th October 2014, 09:59 AM #7SENIOR MEMBER
- Join Date
- Feb 2010
- Location
- Ballina, NSW
- Posts
- 725
I use 1.5 or 2% lanthanated almost exclusively, because I'm not allowed to buy anything else until I use up my current stock
I like sharpening batches at once, and I set up a little portable grinder on a mobile bench which I wheel outside the shed, so all the dust can be swept away easy.
When I have a sharpening day:
- I sharpen most (90%) to a relatively short but sharp taper and then for half of these, I blunt the tip slightly;
- I do a few long tapers sharp tapers; and
- With any really stuffed up tungstens I just snap the end off and grind the end off flat and then bevel the edges;
- The sharp tip ones (long and the short taper) are for steel.
- The blunted taper and flat bevelled ones are for heavier aluminium where I know the tip is going to round anyway.
For anything critical with aluminium, I light up a new electrode on some scrap and make sure the tip behaves right/rounds off symetrically.
I use 2.4mm probably 95% of the time. It's handy having pre-sharpened ones sitting around, and if they happen to be of different composition, well that's fine - just make sure you make the red ones sharp and the white ones not so. (the red ones draw blood, the white ones don't).
Cheers
- Mick
-
10th October 2014, 01:46 PM #8GOLD MEMBER
- Join Date
- Sep 2010
- Location
- Lebrina
- Posts
- 1,099
-
11th October 2014, 10:46 AM #9
I use ceriated exclusively on an old transformer based machine. 2.4 would be my recommendation for Al (unless you are doing very thin Al).
The beauty, for a hobbiest at least, of using on one type of tungsten is that you only need to purchase one sort. The slightly different grinds isn't really an issue.Cheers.
Vernon.
__________________________________________________
Bite off more than you can chew and then chew like crazy.
-
14th October 2014, 09:49 PM #10New Member
- Join Date
- Sep 2014
- Location
- australia
- Posts
- 9
thanks guys much apreciated
Similar Threads
-
aluminium
By SHIPPERS in forum METALWORK FORUMReplies: 3Last Post: 30th April 2012, 03:06 PM -
welding gas for aluminium question
By northerncat in forum WELDINGReplies: 3Last Post: 14th May 2009, 02:00 PM -
Aluminium
By catbuilder in forum WELDINGReplies: 20Last Post: 4th January 2009, 07:48 PM -
Dumb question alert:- Salt and pepper question again
By lubbing5cherubs in forum WOODTURNING - GENERALReplies: 12Last Post: 22nd June 2008, 08:44 PM