I had the exact experience with the red tungsten on ally, switching to E2 for the win. Dedicated 4" grinder with an eBay dimond wheel has refined my prep too 👌
I need a tungsten sharpener where you load up 20 or 40 rods and it sharpens them all automatically. That way a batch can be sharpening while I'm busy dipping the last batch.
This video really came at the perfect time for me! My local welding supply stores only seem to consistently stock red tungsten
Back in 2017 when I got my first TIG welder I grabbed a bench grinder from the local classifieds for $20, kept the "fine-grit" wheel on one side and ordered a couple of the finest Uxcell Chinesium Ø6" diamond flat wheels from Scamazon, 240 and 500 grit, and made them work on the other side with a McMaster-Carr shaft clamp to take-up the extra shaft spacing. I'm only a hobby welder but the diamond wheels are still going strong and the 500 grit gives a nice smooth tip every time. I need to design & build a little angle jig, but freehand works too. Work smarter not harder, you don't need a fancy-pants anodized gizmo tungsten sharpening device.
At my old job, we used 1/8" red exclusively because all we ever did was steel pipe. Then, the boss man got an AC tig welder so we could do aluminum, but didn't want to get any other types our sizes of tungsten. He said our processes were only certified with 1/8" red, and he didn't want to do any recert with any others. Doing aluminum with those 1/8" reds was always a huge pain. At my new job, we do all our aluminum with 3/32" or 1/16" purple. Night and day.
Some of the knife sharpeners with a diamond wheel work well for sharpening tungsten.
Quality content and insights as usual, thanks for sharing your impressive knowledge
What a great video this is I'm going to watch it a few more times. I recently decided to get a tig torch for my miller multimatic 215 welding machine. I'm going to use it for mostly pipe
Thanks Jody.
Love these comparisons. Great video. AC I personally love 0.8% Zirconiated if I can, which usually is white. As long as it’s not pure tungsten I’m happy lol
Have yet to purchase anything but blue. Love those Weldmonger TIG gloves.
I use a 3" fine grit diamond disc on a mandrel in the drill press. works great.
Great tips for tungsten. Thank you, I will keep watching.
I’ve been using almost exclusively purple from your store. I have some lanth , lazr, and grey but for what I do I like the rare earth mix the best.
I believe the additives are to help conducting electricity. I had some old plain tungsten electrodes and they only work right on AC. On DC the arc starter doesn’t do anything , you have to bump them.
Sounds like you are using an inverter machine, I would like to see this with a transformer machine as well.
you should do a video on the pencil style ck tag torch!
Good info as always
great info and lesson, thanks
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