One of the most common questions we get at Arc-Zone.com is

Which tungsten electrode should I use ?

or even more specifically

What is the best Tungsten for precision TIG welding with AC (alternating current) on Aluminum using an inverter based machine?

A lot of folks in the industry have some very strong opinions on this subject, some based on fact, some based on ego and greed and some– just not having the experience. . .

For sure the answer is NOT Pure tungsten (color code: Green)!  Even though many say you should use pure, and back in the day specifications called out Pure tungsten for AC TIG welding.   But that’s old skool; I never use pure, and I would not recommend even trying it!

We have several industrial customers who purchase tungsten electrodes from us in quantity–  and they have spent a lot of time and money testing different materials.  From precision orbital TIG welding of high-purity stainless steel tubing, to manual TIG welding of yacht towers or special interest auto intake/turbo manifolds and other aluminum fabricated parts where the finished product is the “money.”  In other words, these master fabricators know what they’re talking about when it comes to TIG Welding and tungsten electrodes and hands down, they prefer our ArcTime(TM) Hybrid tungsten electrodes.

Based on my 20+ years in the welding industry, I would say it comes down to two things – the tungsten brand name (who makes it), and the material blend or formula (how it’s manufactured).

Tungsten Brand Name:
Arc-Zone.com sells all the leading brands of high-quality tungsten electrodes: ArcTime, Amplify, CK Worldwide, Multi-Strike, Sylvania, and Weldcraft.  With these trusted brands, you are assured that the material is top-quality and manufactured to the highest specifications and with adherence to International ISO 6848 and AWS A5.12 standards.

Tungsten Blend or Formula:
If you look at our sales from users around the world, ArcTime™ Hybrid (color code: Sky Blue) is the most popular and the 2% Ceriated (color code: Orange) and Lanthanated (color code: Dark Blue) are the second most popular, especially for precision fabricators. Again that is based on our sales and conversations with fabricators and leading power supply manufactures – (Weldcraft will be adding 2% Lanthanated to their product line shortly, and they currently offer a Rare Earth material, which is a generic material designed to compete with ArcTime™, Trimix, and Multistrike).

For the record, we sell Multi-Strike, and we sold Trimix for many years, but those materials are very expensive, and our customers told us the performance did not justify the extra cost.

Also important and often overlooked is the quality of the tungsten material. Like it or not the vast majority of the tungsten electrodes are made in China. The raw material for the most part has always come from there, as they have some of the largest tungsten mines. That said there are many high-quality manufacturers, just as there are poor quality manufacturers. Your best option is to buy a material that has a trusted brand name, from a supplier that offers only carefully selected and tested products from known manufacturers.

Free Tungsten Samples  / Free Pizza:
A local “New York style” pizza joint comes by the shop and offers us free pizza, since we often have pizza on Fridays–to celebrate exceeding our customer experience goals–we ordered one of those free pizzas.  It was terrible.  We threw it out!

Recently they stopped by again, and when our receptionist said “No thank you,” the stooge they hired to pass out the free pizza flyers was floored.

“You guys don’t want a free pizza?  I don’t get it, you don’t eat?” he said.

She told him their pizza was not worth the phone call.

I know that may sound harsh, but it’s true and you know what I am talking about…. you get what you pay for.  We have some “competitors” that offer free tungsten samples.

When we get calls from people asking us for samples we refer them to those free sample guys.  And if they are serious fabricators they try those free samples then call us back and place an order. . .

So, no, we don’t offer free tungsten samples, but what we do offer is the best Brand Name tungsten welding electrodes on the planet, backed by our unsurpassed technical support, and every order ships with material safety data sheets, user guides, how to’s, material specifications with mill runs and lot numbers, a bag of our signature M&M’s, plus the industry’s only unconditional MONEY BACK GUARANTEE and a NO-HASSLE return policy.

ARC-ZONE.COM®, INC. DELIVERS PLASMA ARC WELDING ACCESSORY KITS

Carlsbad, Calif.— Whether you’re using the Thermal Dynamics 2A, 3A, 4A and PWM300 Plasma Arc Welding Torches, setting up a new Plasma Arc Welding station, or optimizing your existing welding station, Arc-Zone.com’s Plasma Arc Welding Accessory Kits are fully loaded with a variety of performance proven parts.

Designed by Arc-Zone.com technicians, the kits allow you to fine-tune your existing plasma arc welding torch, or get your new torch dialed in and ready to weld.

Operations manuals often suggest options for various amperage settings, adjustments and top sizes. “The benefit of the Arc-Zone kit is that every part you need is stored in one convenient and rugged kit box,” says Jim Watson, founder and CEO of Arc-Zone.com. “From replacement shield cups, back caps, pre-ground electrodes, shield cup gaskets, to long tips you’ll have easy access to the parts you need to customize your torch, minimize downtime, and you’ll have the quality to minimize variables.”

Whether you’re ordering the standard kit or the deluxe kit, you’ll also get Joe Welder’s Guide to Optimizing Your Plasma Arc Welding Torch. And re-ordering parts for your kit is easy: each kit is labeled with a custom made lid card that identifies each component, and a super cool Weld Like A PRO™ sticker.

Founded in June 1998, Arc-Zone.com®, Inc. delivers proprietary, brand name and OEM replacement parts and accessories for GMAW, GTAW and Plasma Arc Welding and Cutting applications to customers worldwide.

Though not affiliated with Thermal Dynamics Corporation, Arc-Zone supplies OEM and high quality replacement parts manufactured to demanding specifications and engineered to be interchangeable with Thermal Dynamics® parts, are not OEM parts and are not endorsed by Thermal Dynamics®

For more information, visit the Arc-Zone.com web site at www.arc-zone.com, call 760-931-1500 or email sales@arc-zone.com.

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Arc-Zone.com is the world’s leading supplier of high-quality tungsten grinding machines engineered to improve weld-quality and safety for TIG and Plasma Arc Wedling. We deliver and support the best quality machines from a variety of global manufacturers, offering a wide range of machines from our own Sharpie(tm) hand-held grinders great for the welding hobbyist to portable and bench top machines for the garage, production shop floor or job site.

Not too long ago we identified an opportunity to innovate the industry by introducing a line of low-impact recyclable diamond grinding wheels for our line up of production tungsten grinding machines and we found a local manufacturer that we thought was going to benefit our customers in terms of price and quality. Unfortunately, when we received the first production run, they were not at all what we expected, and did not match our agreed upon production standards. In business sometimes you need to take the product to market and perfect it based on customer feedback. So we shipped some of the “new style” low-impact recyclable wheels to a select group of customers. And let me tell you, we heard about it straight away. First off the wheels looked completely different and did not have the bright nickle plated finish that they were used to, most people thought they were cheap imports! We even lost a few customers, and it will take some time to get them back.

Since then, we’ve been working with an established world-class manufacturer right here in the U.S. of A — and we are very happy with them, and the wheels are absolutely the finest available. We’ve also done a lot of research and tested these wheels so that they meet the stringent requirements and the needs of our customers.   In fact, take a few minutes and read the Technical Focus Sheet on Grinding Tungsten Electrodes with Diamond Wheels (.pdf) that I put together. The paper includes information on dry grinding, wet grinding, types of wheels and tips for maximizing your wheel’s life.

Now we are able to supply the highest-quality replacement diamond wheels for all your tungsten grinding machines. It’s great to be able to offer a superior quality product, at a fair price, and best of all they are made in the U.S.A.

Don’t buy the misleading advertising other companies are doing, they charge up to $299.00 per wheel – for a cheap import wheel from China (that they pay $35.00 for) — That’s Ridiculous. At Arc-Zone.com® we supply the highest-quality wheels Made In the USA for a lower price — That’s Ridiculously Awesome!

Wheel Core Exchange™
Arc-Zone.com® now offers a Wheel Core Exchange program for your spent diamond grinding wheels! Return your worn-out diamond grinding wheels to Arc-Zone.com, and we’ll give you a $25.00 discount on a new wheel purchase or a store credit (applies to new wheels $100.00 or more). By returning your used wheels, you’ll reduce the environmental impact of discarded diamond grinding wheels. Better still, you’ll reduce the impact on your wallet!

We stock wheels for all populartungsten electrode grinders – Sharpie™, Turbo Ace, Super Turbo, Turbo-4, Radnor, Weldmark®, OKI, Best Welds, Abicor Binzel®, Diamond Ground Products Piranha II, Piranha III and DGP*, Neutra, Neutrix, Ultima TIG and Black Gold, Weldcraft® (formerly Georg Fisher +GF+ ESG Plus) Pro-Fusion Sharp Shooter, Intercon TIG 10/175, CK Worldwide® TurboSharp V and more! Custom diamond grinding wheels available by request.

For automated TIG and Plasma Arc Welding applications where minimizing variables is imperative, consider Arc-Zone’s Custom Pre-Ground Tungsten Electrode Program. We offer precision pre-ground electrodes prepared to your exact specifications from tip geometry to ground or polished finish. And for high production environments we even offer a blanket purchase order option so we’ll always have your electrodes in stock and ready to ship to you when you need them. Additionally, we offer a RE-grinding service that will save you and your organization valuable time and money!

If you have any questions about which diamond wheel you need, the tungsten grinder that will work best with your budget and your application, or to find out if you would benefit from our pre-ground program, contact an Arc-Zone.com technical expert today!

*Arc-Zone.com®, Inc. is not affiliated with some of the companies referenced. We supply high quality replacement parts manufactured by or for Arc-Zone.com® to demanding specifications. The parts are engineered to be interchangeable with OEM parts, are not OEM parts and are not endorsed by some of our friends listed above.

Ramon over at Headway Performancein NY has been trying to get a system dialed in to allow him to do all his cylinder head and manifold welding in-house.  He had been farming all his welding out, which meant he had no control over how or when it was going to be done.

After going online and browsing around various welding forums and message boards, he heard about Arc-Zone, and that we hooked guys like him up with the good stuff.  He ended up contacting us and he bought the whole enchilada from Arc-Zone– a complete TIG welding system to connect directly to his Miller Syncrowave 350 TIG welding machine.

Ramon got a CK Worldwide flexable head, 250 amp Water Cooled TIG Torch with SuperFlex cables and cable cover and a Weldcraft Crafter Series 310 Amp Water Cooled TIG Torch.  He chose the Binzel CoolMate Style Water Cooler, and to get the most out of his TIG Torches, we set him up with the Arc-Zone Deluxe Gas Saver Pro Kit, one of our Pro Series Accesory Kits.  Plus Ramon got a variety 1lb tubes in all the popular TIG rod alloys. Now when it comes to high-quality TIG welding– there’s not much he can’t do with his new set up!

As you can see, the guys over at Headway are doing some serious manifold development and airflow and swirl testing.

You can see a picture of HeadWay’s flow bench here:

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NICE FENCE – WHO DONE IT? Hayes Fencing

My sister Lori bought a house with some land in Ramona California. As soon as she moved in she began to convert it to the horse property that she always wanted; she needed some fencing to start. When she asked her fellow horsemen who builds the best corals and arenas, it was unanimous–”Hayes Fencing, they do quality work”.

Steve Hayes owner of Hayes Fencing in Ramona California and his son Ryan fenced the entire property, including a pasture, paddock, pipe corrals and stalls, custom steel cross-ties, hitching posts, a huge arena and obstacle course, tie racks, a wash rack etc. They built some things in their shop, but almost everything was welded on site with their Hobart Handler portable 110V MIG welding machine.

When Lori added a couple of goats, however, she needed to build up her fencing on one area of the goat pen– those critters climbed up to the top of that big rock and jumped over to the neighbors!

I was out visting Lori and was talking to Ryan about welding tools, welding helmets, protective gear etc. when I noticed Ryan was using a Profax MIG gun made in USA (available from Arc-Zone) I asked him about it. He said, “It’s good, but the local supplier has no parts for it.” The supplier actually suggested Ryan buy a new gun ($150) when all he needed was a gas diffuser ($3)!

He was thrilled when I told him we had parts for his MIG welding gun in stock, and that he could order online. “It costs us a lot of time and money to roll into town and take our chances on being able to get the supplies we need– if I can get the parts and other supplies we need from Arc-Zone it will really help us be more productive.” Town, after all is about 20 miles away.

If you want to build a business and make a damn good living, you should look at the Hayes family. They work hard and do what it takes to get the job done right… When Lori needed some extra work done, Ryan came out on a Sunday to make some extra coin.

Don’t buy into all the media balderdash about no jobs, bad economy etc. This job alone was worth over $35,000! So get out there and start building and billing today!

Just got this news from Miller Electric about their new diesel engine-driven welder/AC generator (see below).  This thing is its own power plant!

And don’t forget, Arc-Zone.com offers TIG torches and replacement parts, MIG guns and replacement parts, stick holders and leads, and plasma arc cutting torches and replacement parts.

Miller Electric Mfg. Co. today introduces the Big Blue® 350 PipePro diesel engine-driven welder/AC generator. The Big Blue 350 PipePro, purpose-built for transmission pipeline welding, provides 20 to 400 amps for both DC Stick (325 amps at 100 percent duty cycle) and DC TIG welding, 14 to 40 volts for MIG and Flux Cored welding (350 amps at 100 percent duty cycle) and 12,000 watt peak/10,000 watts continuous auxiliary generator power for running tools on site. Built for the harsh elements encountered in pipeline welding, the machine is also designed for structural steel, construction, fabrication and MRO applications.

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It happens every year, heat wave after heat wave hitting nearly every region in the country at some point. At this writing heat warnings have been issued for the central U.S. and with another month (at least!) left of summer, no doubt more are on the way.

One new weapon in the welder’s arsenal against heat fatigue is Miller’s new Arc Armor™ Heat Stress Protection products:  The CoolBand™ and the CoolBelt™.

The CoolBand™ is an integrated system that works with most Miller Arc Armor helmets to reduce under-the-hood temperature by up to 8 degrees (Farenheit).  You’ll get up to six hours of continuous cooling from one battery charge!

“Improved productivity, work quality and overall well-being of the employees are all benefits our customers are realizing through the utilization of these products by their welders.”  -Bill Gardner, product manager, Miller Electric Mfg. Co.

For an even more robust solution to heat stress, check out the CoolBelt™ system. The lightweight, belt mounting system can lower temperatures under the hood up to 17 degrees!  The CoolBelt offers multiple air speeds and directional air controls to keep air moving over the users face and head.

Especially when working in the field, it may be impossible to avoid the heat, so if you do work in extreme heat environments, consider an investment in your health with these great products from Miller.

Also, be sure to check out  the Centers for Disease Control’s tips for maintaining personal safety in the heat, and Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Guide to Protecting Workers from the Effects of Heat (.pdf) and the OSHA Fact Sheet on Working Outdoors in Warm Climates (.pdf).  And always keep your cool!

And for even more information, check out the Heat Stress Webinar hosted by the folks over at Miller–  an hour long discussion with Product Manager Bill Gardner and industrial hygiene and safety experts.  You can register and listen for free.

You’ve probably seen the clear Pyrex (R) nozzles you can put on your TIG Torch.  To be honest when we first saw them, we thought they were nothing more than a cool party trick….

These nozzles come with a gas lens collet set up to provide optimal coverage, coherent gas flow, and minimal turbulance–  great for welding metals like titanium or stainless steel where oxygen contamination in your weld zone can ruin your weld.  And the clear nozzle offer great visibility.  It’s way more than a party trick.

These nozzles are the brainchild of the folks over at CK Worldwide, well-respected TIG torch  engineers who got their start in the aerospace industry.  And these nozzles will not only work on CK TIG Torches, but on all major brands of TIG torches  (Weldcraft, Weldtec, TecTorch, Radnor, BestWelds, Master TIG, Profax, etc.)

At Arc-Zone, we’ve assembled  PRO Kits from the Deluxe Gas Saver Pro Kit that has everything you need for your 9/20/CS3210 series TIG Torch, to the Standard Diameter Gas Saver Pro Kits for your 17/18/and 26 series TIG Torch. These kits come with everything you need to Weld Like A PRO(tm)!

Not only do you get a box full of accessories for a variety of TIG  welding applications, you get a TIG Welding calculator you take with you on the job as well as several of our popular articles like  ”Joe Welders Guide to Optimizing your TIG Torch.”

As many TIG welders know, thoriated (red) tungsten has in the past, been a preferred tungsten electrode blend.  But that’s old skool thinking– there’s better options out there… more on that later.

If you’re like me, you enjoy learning about all kinds of things especially as it relates to welding and metal fabrication.  I recently stumbled across this column over at Salon.com, Blogging the Periodic Table.  It’s a fascinating look at each of the elements in the periodic table–  and each one has a story.  You can read all about Thorium. Though this column doesn’t include information on welding, there some interesting and fun facts sprinkled throughout.

Now if you’ve been TIG welding for a while, you’re all too familiar with the RED tungsten electrodes.  This thoriated blend of tungsten electrode is popular because it is a good general purpose electrode (good for all metals and all machines) has excellent arc behavior and lasts long….  because of the nature of thorium, however, there are some health concerns due to vapors and grinding dust. At Arc-Zone we recommend you only use it if you are contractually required to, especially as there are better alternatives out there.

For more detailed information on health and safety concerns regarding the use of thoriated tungsten electrodes, check out the AWS Safety and Health Fact Sheet: Thoriated Tungsten Electrodes.

We almost always recommend our ArcTime Hybrid Tungsten… it is truly a state-of-the-art improvement over the old thoriated electrodes with excellent ignition properties, low burn off rate and it lasts a long time! I’ll let our spokes model tell you more about it:

To explore other options, check out Arc-Zone.com’s Guide to Selecting Tungsten Electrodes.

We get quite a few fabricators stoppin by the Zone, but imagine our surprise when Skateboarder Josh Kalis walked into the Arc-Zone.com headquarters to pick up a welding helmet….  DC Shoes is just down the street from Arc-Zone…

He rolled up in a cool blacked out Porsche 911 GT2RS and he was getting ready to star a new skating video.  The production company wanted him to skate over a roll-off dumpster, and he told them they needed to put a lid on that thing;  to do that right, they’d need some welding gear.  Josh offered to get it himself and weld it so they could add that to the video.

Josh googled and found Arc-Zone.  ”Sure glad I found you guys,” he told me.

We hooked him up with some stylin’ new Revco flamed out black Stallion gloves and a nice Miller Digital Elite welding helmet.

I  spread out the goods in our styled out conference room– helmets all the colors and graphic options, and told him the the flat black is my fave– you can decal it as you like.   Josh agreed and that was that.

Next the ladies in our Customer Care Department put together the rest of his order and  charged his Amex card.  He even gave up his email address:  ”Put me on the list!” he said.  (Arc-Zone’s monthly email is pretty informative and a fun read)

Josh said, “Man you guys got all the good stuff! When I walked in the lobby I was thinking you only sold online, but I’m blown away!”  He said he’d be buying more from us for his Automotive restoration shop in Michigan — http://www.allspeedperformance.com/

Unfortunately he wasn’t driving this tricked out custom DC Camaro but you can check it out here:

And let us know if you want to stop by! Its great to meet our customers and hear about the projects they’re working on…. We’ll even have you’re order ready to go!

And sign up for our email list to get news of new products, as well as tips and tricks so you can Weld Like A PRO!