| tlkolrod |
Wed Oct 08, 2014 8:49 am |
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Folks I am looking for opinions:
When doing TIG work on car body sheet metal what tungston type and size do you get the best results with? I have not tried 2% lantanated yet but the reviews seem good. I am a beginer at TIG. I have used mig for many years. I am still learning so I want some other peoples thoughts befor I make some new purchease
Thx for the input in advance
Toby from PA |
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| Northof49 |
Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:13 am |
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| If it is exclusively for sheet metal, I would use a 1/16" or 0.040 electrode. I really like the lanthanated or thoriated electrodes. I prefer lanathanate because I fear the radioactive dust created when grinding them. |
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| MMW |
Sun Oct 12, 2014 1:31 pm |
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Size would be .040 or 1/16" for tungsten. Filler rod should be .030 or .035, if it is not readily available you can use mig wire as a substitute until you can get tig rods.
For a transformer machine I like red (2% thoriated) |
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| theKbStockpiler |
Mon Oct 13, 2014 8:24 am |
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| I just started tigging and have experimented quite a bit. I much prefer .040 tungsen for 19 gauge. 1/16" maybe for a lap joint would be okay but I still see a noticeable difference with .040. For filler rod on 19 gauge I'm going with HF .035 mig wire that has been straightened out by putting a 16" length in a 1/4 inch drill ,the other end in a vice and twisting the wire straight. Pull it taught and then run the drill at about 1k rpms for 15 seconds or just before the wire breaks off. The wire will still have tension on it so wear safety glasses when you do this and especially when the chuck is loosened on the drill. 1/16" filler rod will work but the mig wire fits the application better in my opinion. |
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| Northof49 |
Mon Oct 13, 2014 8:55 am |
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| That's a cool idea about using a drill. I was just working it relatively straight with my fingers. Rather time consuming, but I couldn't find locally available thin stainless tig filler for some fine work I was doing. I'll try the drill trick out. |
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| theKbStockpiler |
Mon Oct 13, 2014 9:22 am |
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| The drill method with the the HarborFreight .035 mig wire can't be beat. I looked for anything thinner than 1/16" filler and found nothing. Whoever first tried to straighten and strengthen mig wire by twisting it contributed greatly to DIY tig welding. :D hattip |
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