Does Tungsten Size Always Matter?

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This video shows some differences in the arc plume when using different size tungsten electrodes.
Some textbooks will tell you to use the smallest size electrode possible.
But maybe there is more to it.
Using a small diameter tungsten makes the electrode get much hotter and seems to affect the arc plume quite a bit.
I was surprised to see a more confined arc using a 1/8" tungsten.
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[@travisweldmaster7815]

The welding community appreciates you too jodi!!!🎉❤

[@beastwolf7]

Big time!

[@joryskidmore7041]

This is the only welding channel people should be watching, best arc shots 👍🏻

[@NBNracing]

If your old enough to remember vacuum tubes, the heater in the tube encourages the plate to give off electrons. The red-hot .040 tungsten is more willing to shed electrons than the colder 1/8 tungsten.

[@georgedunkelberg5004]

Vietnam Era 1963-'66 West Pac Navy RADARMAN+ YUP !

[@mikewalker4062]

Jody, I have watched you for years. My torch kits are all thanks to you. Your content is still relative and informative. Keep up the great work. Thank you. Mike

[@billmoates4544]

Jody, thank you for continuing to push out quality information and teaching. This keeps us moving in the right direction.

[@bluegizmo1983]

I prefer to just use a 3/32nd tungsten and then grind it to a sharper angled point if I need it to be "smaller".

[@MidEngineering]

I've taken to using .040" Tungstens for thin stuff (less than50 Amps) just because they're easier & quicker to re-sharpen when I keep dipping them!

[@weldingtipsandtricks]

@@MidEngineering makes sense

[@declanfaughey8471]

Thank you for your videos, I am currently in welding school, and your videos are very informative and very well shot and very well presented, I watch a lot of your videos and have learned so much which has helped me improve my welding skills. Please keep them coming.

[@HartsPerformance]

As always more great information to add to my welding knowledge seeing how I'm still a beginner. Only been tig welding for about a year now on my own diy stuff. Thanks again!

[@WaltWorlds]

Treasure-Jody.... Teaching the whole world how to weld. ♥️

[@SullyUSA]

Hey Jody - the tungsten holders are sold out, but I put my name on the wait list. As always, a great video. I really enjoy the content as I'm a newb and am getting prepped to start tig and mig welding in earnest.

[@ypaulbrown]

Fantastic Jody, always appreciate what you sell and do for the welding community, Cheers from Orlando, Paul

[@jrcicirello]

Great info as always. Thanks Jodi. I always enjoy learning from your videos.

[@CoastalCarolinaOutdoors]

Always learn something from your videos Jodi! Thanks

[@olddawgdreaming5715]

Thanks for the great information and the cool tool holder Jody, stay safe around there and keep up the great videos. Fred.

[@boots7859]

As a newbie, it would be interesting to know if there is a stronger weld joint with going with the larger rod.

[@travisweldmaster7815]

Yes future video on that please

[@WojnarskiWeldingFabricaion]

Awesome video Jody👍 I agree with you I’m no expert at home I have a 210 amp machine and mostly just use 3/32” blue 2% lanth tungsten for everything. At work I use 3/32” for mostly all steel and stainless welding. Sometimes I’ll drop down to 1/16” for really thin work rarely though I don’t do a whole lot of work thinner than 16ga. For aluminum at work though I do tend to use 1/8” tungsten most of the time unless I have something 1/8” or thinner for aluminum just my preference at work I like to weld kinda hot and fast ish and will set the machine a little hotter around 250 amps or more where the 3/32” melts sometimes but that’s welding 1/4” or more give or take most of the time. At home 3/32” is perfect for most applications. Blue 2%lanthanated tungsten is probably my favorite too I tried it when I heard you mention it years ago and it seems like the best all around tungsten for ac and dc. 👍👍👊🏻👊🏻

[@weldingtipsandtricks]

@@WojnarskiWeldingFabricaion thank you

[@Phantom-mk4kp]

The only difference i can imagine is that the resitance of of the thin electrode is higher because it is glowing yellow, this may account for the flare leakage higher up

[@patricksalmon3494]

Incroyable la différence avec les différentes vidéos. Merci Beaucoup

[@veli-mattipatinen203]

These are super helpful videos. I would love to see some videos where you don't use foot pedal because some of us don't have access to them so it's difficult to figure out the amperage settings because we always get the full amperage we set to machine and I for one blow a hole in aluminum too often or the puddle drops flat and don't get those beautiful dimes so any help would be much appreciated 😊

[@ChasingPerfection]

I mainly weld 16-20 gauge sheetmetal and use 0.040 ground to a fine point. I dunno the angle as I hand grind but I make it pointy. Everything I do is ground and planished out. For me, the smaller the tungsten and smaller the wire, the smaller I can keep the heat zone. Less heat makes for an easier weld to hammer out afterwards.

[@Golgi-Gyges]

Thank you for the content!

[@StuPierce77]

Thanks for another very educational video Jody! I just picked up 2 of the new tungsten holders, one for new and one for used. Cool product. I'm hoping you put together an affordable rod storage system product someday. One with sealable tubes, rack, and labels, etc. Just an idea. Keep doing what you're doing! We appreciate it!

[@weldingtipsandtricks]

thank you ...working on the rod tubes

[@StuPierce77]

@@weldingtipsandtricks Great!

[@bagheadbaby]

I tend to use 1/8th for most applications I do allot of 1/8th wall stainless steel pipework with it. Tend to prefer it as the tip doesn’t dull as fast

[@00action00]

I'm a little curious about using a Pyrex cup for AC welding especially at that amperage....

[@michaelogden2359]

Thank you for the great videos..

[@joebaileygl1500]

Great job

[@paulkurilecz4209]

tyvm. A couple of items to consider, the current capacity is proportional to the diameter of the tungsten and a certain amount of area is needed for the current to leave the electrode. I think that this is why the weld puddle was wider on the 0.040" electrode and that you saw the secondary ionization plume. I use electrodes from 1/16" to 1/8" and I have noticed there is a difference in how the puddle behaves as the current carrying capability of the electrode is reached. For what it is worth, my experience is that the shorter taper works better at higher amperages and the longer taper works better at lower amperages. Of course, I am also using the smaller diameter electrodes as the lower amperages, and vice versa, so that may also have an influence.

[@zenlandzipline]

A lot of truth to what you are saying. Just last week, I was doing some stainless, some 1/8 and 14 gauge square tube, and I had a 1/16” tungsten in. I need to up my amps because it wasn’t burning hot enough to get the penetration I needed. So I turned up to more amps, like maybe 70. Still, not burning hot enough. I turned up higher…80 amps…still not giving me what I needed. I turned up to 100 amps, and there was little to any change in how deep and fast I was melting the steel. I came to the conclusion that the 1/16th tungsten just isn’t capable of carrying more than 60 or 70 amps. I switched to a 3/32 and finished the job at around 65-70 amps.

[@benjamincornaby1854]

Hey Jody thanks for the awesome video as always. You mentioned for a 2% ceriated electrode you may have to jump to 1/8” diameter for the 200 Amp fillet weld. Are lanthinated electrodes able to carry the current better than ceriated? I have noticed as I do a lot of AC welding with 2% ceriated electrodes (3/32”) the end tends to crack and/or break apart over time.

[@weldingtipsandtricks]

@@benjamincornaby1854 in my experience 2% lanth tungsten does hold up better on AC at higher amps.

[@benjamincornaby1854]

Okay, thanks

[@CuplikanceramahIslam23]

Thank you for your videos 👍

[@richardellis3141]

thanks for the lesson

[@ВикторОрехов-л7ь]

Джоди всегда рад новому видео а сам 41 год варю сваркой удачи коллега🎉

[@kontruksi317]

Very good 👍

[@nickdecker2350]

I think it would be interesting to strength test the welds as well. My thinking is that the smaller, hotter electrode would shed more tungsten into the puddle and need to be replaced more often. Probably not a big difference in strength, both good welds still, but i'll bet the bigger tungsten would lay a slightly cleaner and therefore stronger bead

[@Middle24]

I do use the 2% lanthanated due to finding that your recommendations for it being a great all around, were spot on. As I was learning to TIG, I have never understood why you would want a small electrode unless it was really low amps like

[@weldingtipsandtricks]

thank you

[@Middle24]

@@weldingtipsandtricks It is awesome for you to share videos where you are investigating might even learn instead of pretending you know everything like some folks do. Your honesty and humility is at least as valuable as your experience, excellent skills and your willingness to learn. Thank you for being a valuable instructor to so many.

[@ohwowthatsgood]

other settings remaining the same, does tungsten size affect weld penetration? weld strength?

[@weldingtipsandtricks]

good question. I think it can have an effect on penetration sometimes...but not always. Good topic for another video

[@codywhitesides3473]

awesome explanation! Saves me from having to buy more tungsten lol

[@madcapmagician6018]

Interesting. 😁👍 Great video.

[@benphilippi9325]

Before watching - the 6061 guy has suggested 1/8" for everything because it can be sharpened as you like and you don't need the tooling for every size. I like that idea but I'm not sure in experience if you need different sizes. Personally I use 3.2mm for everything and mainly only tig aluminium. I'll add to this comment once I've watched all the way though.

[@dannyl2598]

Thanks

[@jacobbailey3975]

This definitely gonna be a must but item for me

[@jacobbailey3975]

Already added to cart at the clear single fupa 12

[@johnpope4464]

Definitely not what I expected

[@georgedunkelberg5004]

The totality of "heated plate electrode in a vacuum tube" gives comprehension.

[@PMP5240-e3i]

see if this applies to Aluminum please, thanks for the info

[@sblack48]

Always learn from you

[@tweake7175]

The tungsten holder looks good, tho i would like a deaper lid as i never use full length tungsten.

[@rew4640]

Can you make a a rod holder just like that tungsten holder just bigger for those jobs where you don't need a whole can of rods to take along with you just maybe a dozen of a couple different sizes.

[@highlyalloyed9296]

E3, the purple banded tungsten, proved to be all around the best for me even compared with 2% lanthanated. Was able to do basically 95% of everything that came through the shops with 3/32, ac or dc. Super thick aluminum wr had to go up tungsten size and throw helium at it but otherwise 3/32 was the go to.

[@weldingtipsandtricks]

@@highlyalloyed9296 do you weld more on dc or ac?

[@highlyalloyed9296]

@weldingtipsandtricks im in materials research now but in my job shop days it was probably 75% aluminum parts, rest was various other steels and stainless with lots of tacks and restarts, which I would dare to say even stands up to 2% thoriated almost in terms of tip life and resistance to picking up crap from the base metal. On ac I found it never really getting that dumb cauliflower stuff going on on the tip, mind you I can set a machine correctly lol but nevertheless e3 outperformed the various other blends we tried. Some still insisted that this or that blend was better but hey, I wasn't responsible for their parts lol

[@ls2005019227]

Years ago, I took Jodi's advice on the 2% lanthanated.....& they do work exceptionally well for nearly every situation. I've also tried the E3 & LAZr, which both work very well. Depending on material thickness (lower for thicker; higher for thinner + better control), I prefer being around 60hz, although higher frequency (120-150hz) tends to prevent the nodules from forming on the tungstens.

[@alexcatto1432]

I find 2.4mm/3/32" tungstens versatile for steels 3mm and thinner. 3mm and thicker I stick weld it. I wouldn't have bothered buying 1.6mm/1/16" tungstens if I knew this before. For aluminium I find 3.2mm/1/8" tungstens good for pretty much everything even thinner stuff like 1.6mm.

[@videodistro]

Hi Jody. -Joel

[@thomasbecker9676]

Is there a benefit to dropping from a 3/32 to a 1/16 for welding .063 aluminum? I just bought a stubby kit, so I have the consumables on hand and have a sheet metal assembly to weld up. So far, I've only ever used a 3/32 tungsten.

[@weldingtipsandtricks]

in general, a 3/32" would be my choice for .063" aluminum. there are probably a few exceptions where a 1/16" might be bettter

[@thomasbecker9676]

@@weldingtipsandtricks Thanks, Jodi!

[@mikeandcolleenk9831]

Yes it does . Thinner material smaller tungsten. Minimize distortion , but get proper penetration.

[@Duckfisher0222]

I was hit by tungsten last week. I created this bad habit of throwing the torch over my shoulder when the beat is done. tsjak, in my leg, leaves a wide hole for such a tiny needle...

[@weldingtipsandtricks]

@@Duckfisher0222 i once did same in the worst place imaginable. Sadly not much scar tissue 😂

[@magge636]

Bigger tungsten run cooler-> narrower arc. Theres a reason why they use 6.4 mm tungstens.

[@noah8877]

U make those holders in green and red

[@weldingtipsandtricks]

@@noah8877 coming soon

[@hoodznchromez4179]

I’ve tried using 3/32 lanth 2% for welding essentially paper thin stainless exhaust parts that have been in service for years. Cant do it! The arc is too wide. .040 thoriated gives me much crisper and precise arc. Mind you, I’m welding at around 10 A compared to your 60 amp test. Plenty of ways to skin a cat.

[@weldingtipsandtricks]

@@hoodznchromez4179 bingo. I think you nailed it. Need to be in the lower amp range for best arc.

[@hiha2108]

❤

[@KrishnaPandey-d8n]

Argan weldar baicaci hai to batana

[@mattaomartinez.9817]

Id bet dollars to donuts that the 0.40 tungsten has more points for the arc to jump off, making a wider cone. Maybe the heat is oxidizing the surface causing more problems too.