Tungsten Electrode Selection for stainless
- Tungsten Electrode Types
- Electrode Grinding and Preparation
- Matching Electrode diameter to Amperage
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What is the best tungsten electrode for TIG welding stainless steel?
There are several types of tungsten that work fine for tig welding stainless steel.
One of the main things you want is for the tip to stay sharp a long time.
The top 4 types of tungsten that work best for tig welding stainless steel:
- 2% thoriated is still the best performing tungsten for stainless but there are concerns that it is somewhat radioactive. Opinions differ on whether 2% thoriated tungsten is safe but it is still widely used for tig welding stainless steels and stays sharp a long time.
- Ceriated tungsten is not a bad choice and stays sharp quite a while and is OK for aluminum at low to medium amperage. If you tig weld mostly on DC with only an occasional aluminum job, then ceriated is a good choice.
- LaYZr and E3 both work well for stainless and as all purpose tungsten for stainless , aluminum as well as all other metals. ( to me they perform the same). They both have excellent low amp starts and restarts are good.
- 2% lanthanated is a great all purpose choice for keeping things simple and works great for stainless, aluminum, as well as all other metals.
There are many other types of tungsten that will work ok like trimix, multi mix, 1.5 lanthanated and a few others but the ones listed above are the best choices for stainless.
Electrode Grinding and Preparation of tungsten for tig welding stainless
The first thing to remember in cutting and sharpening tungsten electrodes is to cut the tungsten the right way to avoid splitting.
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Different types of tungsten differ in how they splinter when you break them so its best to not snap them at all with pliers, wire dykes, or fingers.
When you snap tungsten without scoring it with a grinder, you risk splitting.
Sometimes it's obvious.
Other times it's not so obvious.
When it's not so obvious, you might go ahead and sharpen it without knowing the tungsten is split...and that can even disguise the split.
A tungsten electrode that is split can result in poor and inconsistent arc starts and an arc that wanders.
Once you cut a tungsten the right way and without splitting it, there are right and wrong ways to sharpen a tungsten electrode.
Sharpening a tungsten on a bench grinder or angle grinder with a hard rock works ok but is not the best method.
Especially if you grind it using a rough grit with the grinding marks running sideways.
Don't get me wrong, I've done it a thousand times using scratch start tig on pipe and even on X rayed welds. But that was with scratch start at anywhere from 65 to 200 amps.
For high frequency start at low amp starts, there are much better ways to sharpen tungsten..
- A hard rock on an angle grinder works ok for a lot of applications but for precision low amp arc starts and for thinner metals, you can easily have a wandering and unstable arc that will melt things you don't want to melt.
(Think about try to start an arc right next to a thin cooling fin.)
You point the tungsten where you want the arc start but it stutters and jumps over to the cooling fin and might just make a mess before you can get off the foot pedal.
The best way to sharpen tungsten is with a dedicated tungsten grinder with a smooth diamond wheel and with precision angle settings.
But What if you don't have a tungsten grinder?
- First off, you want to use a rather fine grinding wheel with around 120 grit or finer. ( most aluminum oxide wheels on bench grinders are typically 36 to 60 grit but you can always do a touch up with a fine grit flap disc if all you have is a rough wheel on your bench grinder)
- Secondly, you want make sure that your grinding scratches are running lengthwise and not sideways. Its fine to get the taper almost done with grinding marks running sideways as long as you finish it off with grinding marks running lengthwise.
- Third, Holding the tungsten electrode with a drill motor at low rpm helps you get a consistent grind.
- Other methods for sharpening tungsten can also be used like a belt sander or even a drill doctor…the main thing is to get a consistent taper with fine scratches running lengthwise
Matching Electrode diameter to Amperage
Each tungsten electrode diameter has a minimum and maximum range of amperage that works best.
Exceeding the maximum amperage is typically much worse than using too low an amperage for a given electrode diameter.
For tig welding stainless steels, a 3/32” diameter tungsten will do a good job from 1 amp to around 250 amps.
3/32” diameter in either 2% thoriated, E3, LaYZr, Ceriated, or 2% lanthanated will all work well for most tig welding stainless.
1/16" tungsten is commonly used in aerospace welding for certain parts where amperage rarely exceeds 70 amps and that makes perfect sense.
1/8” diameter can also provide good results on thick stainless and even thinner stainless provided you prepare the taper a bit sharper for lower amp applications.
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