by Lee Abel
(Burn City , Indiana,USA)
I have wanted a small tig for quite a while, was going with a Thermal Arc Dragster 85, but never had the cash, well its discontinued and replaced with the 95s Inverter unit.
Scratch tig/stick combo.
After having to get it exchanged for new one due to faulty on/off switch ,I find that they are having much better success as to returns, like 12 or 13 out of the first 5000 in roll out and about half of those were shipping damage.
But big thing is what gas cup size do you use for what, it comes with .040 thoriated electrode and 1/16th thoriated, after reading your advice and actually conversing online with another 95s owner he has decided he love lanthanated electrodes as well (and I will be picking some up as well.
And we are both still very confused about cup size.
I will be using this for work on my project cars, mostly steel of all sorts.
Thanks and great site.
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Lee, cup size is mostly a matter of preference but here are some tips,,,
the bigger the cup , the more gas flow required and the quicker you run out of gas.
a bigger cup sometimes helps make a prettier weld especially if you have to go back over it because welding over dull oxidized metal never turns out as good as welding on shiny new metal....it also helps shield the hot tip of your filler rod.
sometimes a smaller cup helps you get into tight areas.
a #7 gas lens cup will work on almost everything.
watch this video of this guy who welds auto parts ...he uses a #4 or #5 and his welds look awesome.
tig welding steel parts with #25 tig torch and #4 or #5 cup