Hey guys. I went to a shop and they've been around for many years and today for the first time I used my Thermal Arc. I however wasn't really able to put down a really good bead. Now I think this is due to a few different factors.

Gas that was used is not straight argon but a trimix of argon, helium, and Co2. They said this was best for stainless. Is this true?

I set the flow to 25cfm as recommended.

Out of curiosity, what gas is used for mild steel? Will the trimix work as well?

I want to do some muffler work as well. Any advice on what settings to use?

Thanks guys.

 

You need pure argon for TIG. It looks like they sold you the trimix as they thought you were using a MIG welder. Pure argon is used for most tig applications, except in some aluminum cases you can use helium or an argon/helium mix.

 

Ohhh... Crap gotta bring it back. I'll bring it back Wednesday. Damn tank weighs a ton.

Can I do mild and stainless with straight argon? Thanks.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Pikachu &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Ohhh... Crap gotta bring it back. I'll bring it back Wednesday. Damn tank weighs a ton.

Can I do mild and stainless with straight argon? Thanks. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Run argon with your TIG and the trimix with your MIG. Argon+TIG should weld just about anything you need to.

 

Problem is that I don't have a mig. Just a tig in my garage. The tank is a rental. I can just bring it back.

 

What about mild steel?

 

Pure argon works for just about everything with TIG.

 

that's strange, I've heard tri-mix is better for SS tig than argon. Any reason why trimix wouldn't shield hand fed filler versus machine fed?

 

I changed it to argon and it's a bit better.