Hi dear welderskills Team,

I would like to Talk a bit about Tungsten.

For homeusers i like to recommend 2% lanth as a good all around tungsten, on some machines a bit unstable on AC at lower Amps. But overall a really good Tungsten for general use!

I tried Trimix and others with up to 4% additives, still the 2% lanth wins regarding to price - perfomance.

But in the last weeks i welded a lot of Aluminium and started to optimize. Read about a „Alustar“ Tungsten on the Good old Weldmonger Forum and tried that. I was shocked by the good results and how much they improve on AC.

So how is your thought about having „optimized“ Tungsten for each Application or just a „works good for Most“ General Tungsten.

It also would be interesting to Talk about what causes unstable arc on AC.

There a lot of my students struggle, to high gasflow, using a lens and a to big cup, to big stickout…

So a cool Topic would be „Common mistakes on AC and how to recognize which and how to Take care of“

Kind regards from Germany,
Christian aka Deichwerkstatt

Great question. I'm excited to see where this one goes.
I will look up the 'Alustar'. i'm intrigued by your review.

The low amp arc starts on AC do seem to be all over the place sometimes. I believe I heard this from Roy...He suggested lightly scratching the aluminum with your electrode where you want the arc to start before initiation. I now do this all the time because it works like a champ. The tiny scratch of bare aluminum is much more electrically conductive than the oxide layer.

I look forward to everyone's input on the torch and gas setup topic.
At work my weapon of choice is a CK FlexLoc torch because the heads are interchangeable. I keep three heads for the three major metals I get to weld. For aluminum I use a 17 style head with a standard long collet body, #5 cup, 1/8'(3.2mm) electrode. For stainless a 20 style head with a large cup, gas lense, and 1/16'(1.6mm) electrode. Steel gets a 20 style with 6-10 cup, gas lense, and a 3/32(2.4mm) electrode.
At home its 3/32(2.4) for everything. I've tried several different types of tungsten and they all seem to do about the same thing. I haven't yet reached a level of precision where I would even notice a difference. Some day.

Who's next?

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I really like these when it comes to heavy AC Welding.

I'll check em out! Thanks!

Personally I use an all-in-one tungsten. the CK LaYZr.
Here is a good reference for all tungsten types.
https://www.ckworldwide.com/products/tungsten-specifications