Tester pack of tig rods?

[Freddy0309]

does anyone know if you can get tester packs of ti rods with various rods in? looking at buying my first tig welder next week (r tech 160 amp dc welder) and was wondering if there was anywhere that did various thickness? ms ss bronze brazing rod etc

cheers in advance

frazer

 

[Shox Dr]

I can't see the point, you'll need A15 in 1.6mm for steel, at the very least.


Have a look at this thread I started a few yrs ago, lists all the rods you are likely to require and then some.


Spend the money on 1kg

 

[Freddy0309]

cheers bud, couldn't find that link when searched earlier,must have been having a funny 5 minutes (me not the site lol)

 

[Shox Dr]

No problem, you might as well buy what you need. I think weldquip does split packs so you can buy 0.5kg.

 

[pedrobedro]

My supplier will sell me a slack handful of most rods for £5, have you tried asking ? Obviously it's cheaper to buy a pack of something but if you don't want them hanging round gathering dust.

 

[Kent]

To start with just get a regular large pack of 1.6mm, then get some burn time in. Get the others as and when you have need of them

 

[Tigman]

United Welding do small packets of rods so you dont have to buy too much !

 

[ben8vgte]

R tech do multipacks of rods, just add them to the order for the welder.

 

[antonio costa]

Kent is absolutely right start with a pack of 1.6 or 2.0mm rods er70-s6 or er70-s2 in mild steel and with that learn how to watch the puddle, how to manipulate it and so on. Actually for the first few hours you don't even need filler rod if you never tig welded. Those hours will be about torch control and settings. The best advice that I can give you to those first few hours with a tig welder is to get a 5 or 6mm thick plate of mild steel. A small size will do since you will have both sides and with a regular cutting disc do several parallel grooves on the plate about 2mm deep, clean all the mill scale and then fuse weld those grooves with the tig torch, try differente settings, diferent motions of the torch, keep focus on the fusion, having to thinkabout the filler rod will be a distraction on those first few hours. You need to learn how to walk before running.

To start with just get a regular large pack of 1.6mm, then get some burn time in. Get the others as and when you have need of them

 

[TechnicAl]

As most of you know we make TIG rods (and MIG / SAW wire) but we only make Stainless and Nickel. Other firms only make mild steel and others make Copper alloys. Therefore to produce multi-paks or taster packs we would have to buy wire from others. Strictly speaking you should somehow isolate them because they can contaminate each other. Plus, thats not what we do.......we are manufacturers.
To be honest I doubt if there is much call for these packs anyway.......most weld only one grade at a time and set up accordingly.

We have had enquiries for individually packed rods but the costs are high so the orders have never materialised.

 

[Screwdriver]

Yes. BOC were amazingly helpful while they were robbing me blind for Argon. So next time you sort out your rental (assuming you're not using a disposable canister at even more astronomical expense) just ask the guy behind the counter. They'll be delighted to hear you're blowing all that Argon back into the atmosphere while just playing around and will hopefully throw a few rods at you to make sure you come back soon.

S.

 

[Freddy0309]

hi thanks for all the replies, i'll order some with the welder from r-tech to get going with, off to boc next week, going to sign up to the volkzone deal and i'll flutter my eyelids whilst in store to see if i can get some freebies

 

[Kent]

I don't get all the fuss about argon prices, rods seem to me to be the component that is overpriced for what it actually is. I mean compare by weight against mma electrodes as a cost and consider the differences in manufacture

 

[Shox Dr]

I don't get all the fuss about argon prices, rods seem to me to be the component that is overpriced for what it actually is. I mean compare by weight against mma electrodes as a cost and consider the differences in manufacture

That's an easy one, anything to do with TIG is never cheap.

 

[antonio costa]

Your comparation is fine but it get's even worse if you compare the exact two same filler metals in the tig rod variety and in mig welding wire the price is so much diferent per pound, for instance er70-s6, the common mild steel mig wire that also exists as a tig rod.
But to be honest I can't complain since a 5kg pack of er70-s2 filler goes for about 27€ including vat from air liquid.
Around here filler rods aren't all that expensive compared to uk

I don't get all the fuss about argon prices, rods seem to me to be the component that is overpriced for what it actually is. I mean compare by weight against mma electrodes as a cost and consider the differences in manufacture

 

[Wedg1e]

I've had small quantities of mild and stainless rods from a couple of Ebay sellers over the years, but I couldn't tell you who they were. I'm sure a search for welding rods on Ebay would turn something up.

 

[antonio costa]

Even the SGMo filler get's quite cheap around here, I paid less than 5€ for 1 kg the last time. I guess that in that department we are lucky.

 

[Screwdriver]

I don't get all the fuss about argon prices, rods seem to me to be the component that is overpriced for what it actually is. I mean compare by weight against mma electrodes as a cost and consider the differences in manufacture

Well it's the monopoly I rebel against. You have to rent a bottle whether you use it or not. I'd much rather just buy one and pay for it to be topped up. I'm a hobby welder so I need to plug into the economy of scale and use large bottles rather than disposables but this also means I pay £100 a year for nothing...

S.

 

[TechnicAl]

I don't get all the fuss about argon prices, rods seem to me to be the component that is overpriced for what it actually is. I mean compare by weight against mma electrodes as a cost and consider the differences in manufacture

There are a few reasons. The steel is different. TIG grades are harder to draw and also less plentiful so dont get as diluted by the cheapo foreign stuff. The flux on a MMA rod amounts to about 2/3rds and is usually cheaper to make than the wire so it dilutes the per Kg costs. I dont have any upto date figures to give a comparison.

On a similar note 0.8mm MIG wire costs perhaps 50% more to make than 1.0mm but the price has never reflected that. The 0.6mm is even more expensive

Look at the cross sections
1.0 mm is 0.78
0.8mm is 0.5
0.6mm is 0.28

All start life as 5.5mm diameter so the work involved in reducing the diameter is massive

Swings and Roundabouts

 

[Kent]

There are a few reasons. The steel is different. TIG grades are harder to draw and also less plentiful so dont get as diluted by the cheapo foreign stuff. The flux on a MMA rod amounts to about 2/3rds and is usually cheaper to make than the wire so it dilutes the per Kg costs. I dont have any upto date figures to give a comparison.

On a similar note 0.8mm MIG wire costs perhaps 50% more to make than 1.0mm but the price has never reflected that. The 0.6mm is even more expensive

Look at the cross sections
1.0 mm is 0.78
0.8mm is 0.5
0.6mm is 0.28

All start life as 5.5mm diameter so the work involved in reducing the diameter is massive

Swings and Roundabouts

I never knew that they all start off at 5.5mm and that explains a fair bit as more handling/labour = more costs over and above any material differences. So MMA are reduced less and then fluxed up? - I see that now