Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi,

I'm relatively new to TIG Aluminium. To date, I've used only pure tungsten electrodes (green ones). i asked someone to buy me some and they came back with E3 which Jody says are better. Well, I had a problem, they looked like there was no gas, but when I went back to the old green electrodes, things were OK again. My welder is an antiquated SAFT Nertabloc 250 with nothing in the way of anything special. It's 50hertz and no pedal! Welding 2mm section Al tubing inside corner and butt. suggestions? regards, Matthew

Welcome to the forum.

If I'm not mistaken, Jody said they are better for modern inverter-based welders. But I could be wrong as I have not seen every single one of his videos. I suggest sticking with what works. Since you switched back to pure and everything was fine again, you have effectively found the root cause, assuming nothing else was changed.

Oscar wrote:If I'm not mistaken, Jody said they are better for modern inverter-based welders. But I could be wrong as I have not seen every single one of his videos. I suggest sticking with what works. Since you switched back to pure and everything was fine again, you have effectively found the root cause, assuming nothing else was changed.

Thanks, I shall try the E3 on a friends inverter based machine to see if that changes anything, but, as you say, stick to what works!

Regards, Matthew

I found E3 good for DC on both transformer and inverter machines, not as good for AC on inverter machines. I had problems with it running wide, gray beads on AC. Could have been the nut behind the torch, but I had better performance with 2% lanthanated.

I have not had good results from the E3. I have had only good things to say about 2% Lanth. as I use that across the board for most everything.....my .02 with my Dynasty 210DX

Thanks Mark and Jumping Jack Flash,

I feel a little better about it not being so good on AC Al!

Regards, Matthew