Which Tungsten???

I really like my TIG. However, I'm far from a professional welder.
Started using 2% Lanth several years ago for an aluminum job, and since used in for other metals, using a Lincoln PT225.

Similar to the recommendation above I've found Jodys' videos very helpful!
In response to this thread I found this free video link showing comparison to several different tungstens.

Daryl
MN
 
Great video Daryl. Thanks for posting it. I have the exact same machine as in the video.
I rarely if ever weld at 200 amps and have not really had a problem with Ceriated Tungsten balling up. Having said that, it looks like I should give the Lathanated a try!
Robert
 
On my Miller inverter machine at home I use 2% Lanthanated for everything. I switched from 2% Ceriated about three or four years ago which also does a fair job.

Mike.
 
Thorium-232 has a halflife of about 14 billion years. That is longer than our best estimate of the current age of the known universe. The ones you have to worry about have halflives under roughly 100,000 years (any longer and the dose is too small to be of concern with infrequent exposure) and more than a matter of minutes or hours (as those never last long enough to do any real damage). By way of comparison Plutonium-239 has a halflife of 24,000 years (a good, steady rate for use as fuel), Uranium-238 has 4.47 billion years, Uranium 235 has 700 million years (convenient lifespan for figuring out how long Earth has been Earth), Radium-226 has 1,600 years, and Actinium has 21 years.

Helpful chart:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_radioactive_isotopes_by_half-life

Even more helpful chart:

https://xkcd.com/radiation/

It has been way too long since chemistry for me to remember how to do all of the math to calculate the dosage rate from welding all day, every day, with thoriated tungsten electrodes, but I'm certain it would fall on the blue section of the chart.


Personally I would rather live in a world/country where we have such overly cautious labels than a world where fluoroscopy is used for shoe fittings. Informed consent and all that.
 
zmotorsports said:
On my Miller inverter machine at home I use 2% Lanthanated for everything. I switched from 2% Ceriated about three or four years ago which also does a fair job.

Mike.
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I just noticed you live in West Point. Cool. I live in Layton and "work" (I don't actually have anything to do at work today, thus I'm on here) in Riverdale. Good to know. That's 3 of us in Utah that I'm aware of.
 
You are probably right about Thorium but somehow the possibility of a few grams of an alpha emitter (with a higher quality factor) sitting in my lungs for 50 years makes me think twice.
In the right dose, Thorium can be a problem. It was once used as X Ray contrast (see below). In spite of its half life it does cause cancer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorotrast

Having said that. It would appear that welding exposure has been extensively evaluated and is low. This paper and others would support its safety.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12797558

R
 
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Yes, when ingested in considerable volume (many moles of Thorium) it would represent a real threat. That's true of most non-metabolized substances.

If you're using proper safety equipment when welding, and most particularly when grinding your electrode, it won't matter because you won't be ingesting or respirating *any*. As a general rule, it is a bad idea to ingest any radioactive substance, regardless of half life.
 
rwm said:
You are probably right about Thorium but somehow the possibility of a few grams of an alpha emitter (with a higher quality factor) sitting in my lungs for 50 years makes me think twice.
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Several grams of cerium in your lungs would do you every bit as much damage as would several grams of thorium, and not because of radioactivity. However, getting that much of any metal into your lungs would be quite a challenge.
 
Seems that I recently read, on Jody's site, that there is now a more or less universal tungsten that has no radioactive component at all and works equally well on generally all materials and AC/DC EP and EN.
Sounds too good to be true. Anyone else catch it?
 
Tony Wells said:
Seems that I recently read, on Jody's site, that there is now a more or less universal tungsten that has no radioactive component at all and works equally well on generally all materials and AC/DC EP and EN.
Sounds too good to be true. Anyone else catch it?
Click to expand...
Tungsten has no stable isotopes.
 
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