Need Help With Tig Settings

[Kelly Aitken]

I'm trying to get myold econo twin hf back on line. I have blown out the inside and cleaned and reset the points. Bought a new regulator yesterday. The tourch has a button on it to start the hf and a knob to start and stop the flow of gas. The only piece of tungston i have is 3/32 with the red band on it. I'm heading out to get a bottle of argon. My question. Is this the right tung. for 1/8 alum? I need a ball park guess for the settings for the amps and gas flow for the 1/8" alum. I can fine tune it from there assuming this thing still works. You guys have helped in the past. Please come through one more time. Thanks.

Kelly

[ASKANDY]

Well,
It will work but it's not really the right tungsten for Aluminum. A pure tungsten is better for this size material and when using AC. If you HAD to do it, the Thoriated (red) will work but not designed for doing AC work.

Good luck

A-

[Mike W]

The rule of thumb is one amp per .001 inch of material. I have used less. Try a green tungsten with a taper.

[sparx]

tungsten

If memory serves me, tapering the pure tungsten for a non-squarewave machine is a waste of time. The tungsten will ball up anyway. You could try a lanthanated or ceriated tungsten that will probably stand up a bit more.

[Kelly Aitken]

Thanks for the feed back. The guy at the local Air/Gas told me the red would work fine. So I did'nt get any thing different. After Chrismas I will get some different ones and try them. Thanks again.

Kelly

[rb455ho]

Thoriated is great for DC but does not perform well for AC aluminum. I know I tried it and it does not compare to zirconated or even pure tungsten. Good luck!!