Thoriated vs Lanthanated Tungsten

[cathead]

So with red radioactive tungsten, which is the bigger hazard, the welding or the grinding?

 

[682bear]

So with red radioactive tungsten, which is the bigger hazard, the welding or the grinding?

The grinding releases a very low level radioactive dust... my understanding is that it is nowhere near a dangerous amount of radioactivity. I used thoriated for years before I knew anything about the hazard, and still prefer it now...

Welding with it poses no added danger.

-Bear

 

[eugene13]

Maybe a hazard for a young guy, I'm going on 75, I'm glad my son uses a supplied air hood at his job although.

 

[epanzella]

Agreed, and if I had a choice...

I have to keep removing the training wheels to get into those tight spots, even a #5 cup is too big.

I'm a serial dipper and am trying to figure out a training wheel attachment.

 

[MrWhoopee]

Maybe a hazard for a young guy, I'm going on 75

I"ll be 70 soon. When I was young enough to worry, the choices were green or red. Green for aluminum, red for everything else. I've reached the stage where the sins of my youth will get me well before anything short of cyanide.

 

[erikmannie]

At home, I use lanthanated for everything. One school I went to (United Bicycle Institute) used ceriated; I couldn’t tell the difference. No thoriated for me, thanks; I’m sure that the dust is not as much of a hazard as people say, but I just want to minimize risk.

Nobody takes their tungsten for a swim more often than I do. It doesn’t bother me because it lets me know that I am holding a tight arc; I am serious about this. I honestly believe that you are better off holding too tight of an arc and dipping your tungsten than being a Long Arc Larry.

But yeah, I spend a lot of time sharpening tungsten. I have a tungsten sharpener. I very often cut off the contaminated part; this saves time as well as wear on my diamond grinding wheel.

You definitely want to have about 10 sharpened tungsten electrodes ready to go, and then resharpen them in batches.

 

[pontiac428]

The thorium component is only 2% of the electrode by weight, and we're only grinding a little tiny bit every now and again. Of that, we're making some dust, but only inhaling a smidgen. Nanograms, maybe. And the half life of thorium off the top of my head is some thousands of years. But the decay chain does emit some Coincident gamma, and that's in the lungs, so there's always the chance of hitting the lottery and having one hit some dividing cell and causing cancer. But hey, I don’t sweat it and it's my job to worry about what workers inhale at their jobs. I wouldn't seek employment at a tungsten sharpening factory doing it 40 hours a week, though.

 

[cathead]

I have been reading up on this subject. It seems that the biggest hazard is in the grinding of thoriated tungsten TIG rods
and subsequent inhalation or ingestion of the dust. Welding with thoriated tungsten is somewhat hazardous as well but
to a lesser extent. Alpha radiation is the most dangerous radiation from a biological standpoint compared to beta or
gamma rays. So, after my home schooling, I will be using only non radioactive TIG rods. The bottom line in my
estimation is that although we can not avoid all radiation, we can avoid a great deal of it with careful choices.
I guess eating bananas(potassium 40 is radioactive) isn't all bad as it reverts to Argon over time.

 

[Janderso]

I’m a dipper too. I am dipping less.
Once I got the magnifying inserts for the welding helmet I do much better.
AC is my challenge.

 

[Cadillac]

Probably get more radiation from all the WiFi everyone is around in my opinion. Doing it 10hrs a day is a lot different than a weekend warrior.