Best Tungsten for Aluminium

[Paul G]

Hi All,

Being an "old school fart" I've never used anything other than zirconiated (white) tungstens for ally (and red for DC)
and on my Lincoln 3 phase at work these were never a problem to ball up.
The Lincoln had an "Auto Balance" setting and even on dirty material this worked perfectly.

I've now been self employed three years and have a Dynasty inverter but on this the white tungstens don't "ball" as well.
My old "supplies" are now running low so it's time to buy some.

I see that Weldequip on here only sells ceriated, (grey) so are these the ones to go for?

I'm tempted by eBay, and just buy one green tip (pure) just to see if they ball up better on an inverter.
However; eBay, cheap, and quality, are three words that seldom go together in my experience, so I'd
rather pay a little more for a "known make" than buy twice.

Your thoughts on this please.

Cheers,
Paul G

 

[pedrobedro]

The idea with the inverter is that you can adjust the parameters so the tungsten with a point and the tip ground off flat doesn't need to ball and you can use a more focused arc. I use ceriated for everything DC and AC (I'm still crap at tig but I get by) and my Stel inverter doesn't ball the tungsten if I use a large enough size. I use ebay tungstens and have had no problems with them.

 

[hotrodder]

Inverters typically don't like pure (green tip) tungsten, iirc Miller specifically even mention it with regards to inverters. Pure tungsten has a higher electron function (or something complicated) that gives the HF a harder time. Pretty much anything else is fair game though, much of it personal preference

Ceriated are easy to start, typically not as good as thoriated with regards to tip longevity on DCEN especially at higher amperage. Personally i don't like 'em with either DCEN or AC. Can't remember why i don't like 'em for AC, i suspect it was also tip longevity

Lanthanated come in several 'strengths'. I reckon the 1% (black tip) is pretty similar to thoriated, maybe not quite as good DCEN. 2% (blue tip) i reckon work better than throiated DCEN. Both work well with AC, depending on prep and balance settings they can either be kept sharpish or more crayon tipped. The black ones are bit closer to zirconiated than blue being easier/more willing to round off

Personally i've being using nothing but Huntingdon Fusion multi strikes for a while now after getting a pack of parwelds that behaved weirdly (splitting/weird tip erosion). They were the only alternative from my usual suppliers and i've stuck with 'em since despite them being a bit more expensive. They're a mixed flavour (lanthana/ceria/yttria iirc). I reckon better longevity than thoriated with DCEN, especially with pulse and sharpened with either a flat at the tip or with a short (around 1D in length) taper can either be kept sharp or end up like a crayon on AC depending on amperage/balance etc

If you like a balled tungsten you could try messing around with what's left of your zirconiated stock... Sharpen with around a 1D taper and a flat at the tip around 1mm across or strike up on a piece of scrap with either too much current for the tungsten size or with the balance turned down closer to 50% EN

 

[Tigman]

Ive been using gold tipped tungstens AC and DC , they do ball up on AC but I found that they dont stay sharp for long on DC , not like the red tipped ones !

 

[Paul G]

Thanks for the replies chaps. Interesting reading.

Normally I would run 65% en, and with a new tungsten I do grind and fire up on a piece of scrap.
With the amps set to high a gentle increase on the foot pedal will give the shape I like, then back off and re-set the amps.

From what's been said so far I'm thinking of sticking with zirconiated (white) and buying Binzel in 1.6 & 2.4mm.
(The red tip ones I use on dc are Binzel and I have no problems with them.)

Many thanks,
Paul G

 

[Tig man aza]

Inverters typically don't like pure (green tip) tungsten, iirc Miller specifically even mention it with regards to inverters. Pure tungsten has a higher electron function (or something complicated) that gives the HF a harder time. Pretty much anything else is fair game though, much of it personal preference

Ceriated are easy to start, typically not as good as thoriated with regards to tip longevity on DCEN especially at higher amperage. Personally i don't like 'em with either DCEN or AC. Can't remember why i don't like 'em for AC, i suspect it was also tip longevity

Lanthanated come in several 'strengths'. I reckon the 1% (black tip) is pretty similar to thoriated, maybe not quite as good DCEN. 2% (blue tip) i reckon work better than throiated DCEN. Both work well with AC, depending on prep and balance settings they can either be kept sharpish or more crayon tipped. The black ones are bit closer to zirconiated than blue being easier/more willing to round off

Personally i've being using nothing but Huntingdon Fusion multi strikes for a while now after getting a pack of parwelds that behaved weirdly (splitting/weird tip erosion). They were the only alternative from my usual suppliers and i've stuck with 'em since despite them being a bit more expensive. They're a mixed flavour (lanthana/ceria/yttria iirc). I reckon better longevity than thoriated with DCEN, especially with pulse and sharpened with either a flat at the tip or with a short (around 1D in length) taper can either be kept sharp or end up like a crayon on AC depending on amperage/balance etc

If you like a balled tungsten you could try messing around with what's left of your zirconiated stock... Sharpen with around a 1D taper and a flat at the tip around 1mm across or strike up on a piece of scrap with either too much current for the tungsten size or with the balance turned down closer to 50% EN

I have noticed this also when on ac with the parweld tungstens at college and at home ceriated tungstens have weird erosion aswell so I prefer zirconiated