Alternative Tungsten Alloys (Ceriated, Zirconiated, Lanthanated, Rare Earth, etc.)

[Spike]

I am still absolutely loving the Lanthanated tungsten for aluminum welding. Here's a couple of aluminum welds i did on some tubing structure for a custom touring motorcycle that i'm building.

[Cippee]

I like 2% lanthanated I have to order them from diamond ground but they hold up alot better than 1.5% lanthanated. They are $24 a box for 3/16th and $14 for 1/16th Nice work by the way.

[jerky]

I like 2% lanthanated I have to order them from diamond ground but they hold up alot better than 1.5% lanthanated. They are $24 a box for 3/16th and $14 for 1/16th Nice work by the way.

its on here somewhere else, but try weldingcity.com. they dont have 2%lath but the 1.5 are dirt cheap. 8.90 for ten 1/16"... also considering at my LWS a ten padck of 2% thoriated 1/8" was 100$!!!, weldingcity was only 25.... even with shipping i still save a lot of money

[srp]

Spike,

For a test, after grinding your tungsten to a sharp tip, put a .050 diameter flat on the tip for aluminum. It gives me a more consistent width of weld and a much flatter weld on aluminum.

[Spike]

Spike,

For a test, after grinding your tungsten to a sharp tip, put a .050 diameter flat on the tip for aluminum. It gives me a more consistent width of weld and a much flatter weld on aluminum.

I don't sharpen my tungsten to a complete point unless I'm doing low amperage work, otherwise it just burns the tip off anyway. I found that just making the tungsten "less dull" target than "sharp" works best for me when welding stuff like the 5/16" aluminum in the last picture.

[Cippee]

1.5% lanthanated compared to 2% lanthanated are a big difference is performance. Trust me 2%.is not comparison to 1.5%. You wouldn't think .5% would make alot of difference but it does. To see a test of them all check this out http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/...odes-gtaw.html

[Spike]

alright, so... with the lanthanated tungstens, i've figured out that it works best for me if i grind a *much* longer taper onto the tungsten than i normally would with thoriated with DC current (about 2x the length), and then thinking about what SRP said, i ground a little flat onto the end of the tungsten, for the lower current sheetmetal aluminum work it makes the welding puddle much more precise and easier to control... for the higher current work, it doesn't seem to make as much difference.
I am surprised that the extra long taper on the tungsten still doesn't roll up into a ball even at 160 amps.

[Spike]

Here is an aluminum weld i did on a sheetmetal project that i'm working on. This is with the elongated lanthanated tungsten (3/32" electrode) on some .063" 5052 sheet.
I think i should have put a ruler in the picture to show the scale. The piece in the pictre is only 1.5" wide from, making the weld beads less than 1/4" wide. (the threads are only 5/16", if that helps)

[jakeru]

After using the same, 2% lanthanted 1/16" tungsten for a reeeeeally long time, it was finally getting a little too short to use any much longer, and so I just grabbed a piece of 1.5% lanthanted 1/16" tungsten that I had handy, laying around. I was surprised that I noticed a definite difference of the 1.5% versus the 2%! The 1.5% has more of a tendency to grow the "protrusions" than the 2%.... especially if you keep welding after an aluminum puddle dip. The 2% seems to handle welding after an aluminum puddle dip much better than the 1.5%. The 1.5% grows fairly large "protrusions" fairly quickly. They don't grow as large or as fast on the 2%. I like the 2% lanthanated better; it keeps it point better. It can put up with a LOT of heat and current too. Both are excellent arc starters (especially if bathed in pure argon... it's pure blissfully easy arc starts.)

By the way, I really like being able to just twist the footpedal current knob from 200A to 100A, and simply shut off the Helium gas valve, and have a setup for welding very delicate, thin parts, and then, just undo those two changes, and have a really powerful setup able to melt very thick parts and good penetration. I have rarely ever changed my tungsten from 1/16" since getting the Helium mix... I'd rather just turn on or off the Helium than bother running higher amps on pure argon and force having to swap out the torch parts to put in a 3/32" tungsten. I think the 2% lanthanated (instead of just 1/5%) may be small, but important part of that equation also (for getting that last bit of possible current and heat out of the 1/16" tungsten tip, without it quickly forming the multiple protrusions.)