Thread: 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

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.

I use 2% lanthanated. That's the one that Jody reckoned works best all round.

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

Originally Posted by Legion

I use 2% lanthanated. That's the one that Jody reckoned works best all round.

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.

Originally Posted by Karl Robbers

I know that many sources recommend Lanthanated ... electrodes, but I never really saw the point when you have to prepare them differently for AC and DC work.

AFAIK you prepare them the same? Maybe a tiny land for AC because it's more likely to spit the tip.

Originally Posted by Legion

AFAIK you prepare them the same? Maybe a tiny land for AC because it's more likely to spit the tip.

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

Originally Posted by Legion

AFAIK you prepare them the same? Maybe a tiny land for AC because it's more likely to spit the tip.

Poor wording on my part. They are prepared in a similar manner, but the electrode used for AC rarely maintains the sharp point that DC requires, thus necessitating a regrind anyway.

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.

thanks guys much apreciated