well? i've been really into welding for a few years and lately, i realized that i have no idea what the hell most of the parts are and what they do. I hear the terms tungsten, collet, collet body, and several other accesories mentioned but im not sure what they are and what the purpose of buying an aftermarket one is.

I mean I have the basic idea of what each part does, like the tungsten is the actual metal rod that goes inside the torch and strikes the arc.

the other stuff (like cups, lenses, collets, etc) I'm pretty stumped. I know they have something to do with the gas flow/coverage, but I'm not sure how to select one and what to look for.

The reason I'm asking this now is because I'm getting a smiley soon and I want to upgrade the crappy stuff it comes with so I can get to making some decent welds. I know the technique, how to choose filler rods, etc... but the actual torch and the internals is what's got me confuzed..

-alan

 

I'm just getting into welding now. I've spent a lot of time on the Lincoln and Miller websites. That would be my first place to visit. They have all sorts of info on just about everything dealing with welding.

 

Nothing really needed to know other than you need to have each part to weld. don't be stumped just go with it and start to burning some rod.

 

but my question really is what is the point of getting a better collet/body , cup, lense, etc.. and which should i look out for?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by eclypzex &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">but my question really is what is the point of getting a better collet/body , cup, lense, etc.. and which should i look out for?</TD></TR></TABLE>Well, I'm sorta the blind leading the blind, but I'll tell you what I know.
If you look for tig torches, you'll see different body "styles" so to say. You can have short and long back caps and a full 90 deg to a full flex head depending on the type and space your welding in. So for these, there is no "better", it's more of a "it depends".
I've only been welding for a short time, but so far I've never fooled with the body or head angle. I may look at getting a shorter back cap for some cage welding (space limitations). And I may get a 90 deg head if I keep playing with thin alumn.
Another big upgrade is a water cooled vs. air cooled. This upgrade is done mostly based on what your welding an how much heat/amps your putting into the torch.
The biggest thing to look into is a gas lens. Post after post, this is the number one upgrade and best improvement everyone talks about. There's a bunch of post about them and their fairly cheap for the most part.
And to truly answer your question, I think you would like to know when to use a certain what and where. And the best answer I have is "it depends". I know type of metal, thickness, penetration desired and placement all play a part. I don't have a good answer. I'll do some searching on the web to see if I can find a info site somewhere. In the meantime check out the Miller site:
http://www.millerwelds.com/edu..._tips/
On the second page thay have a tig torch diagram and on the thrid or fourth page, they have thier Tig handbook:
http://www.millerwelds.com/education/TIGhandbook/

 

Well all these parts are needed in the GTAW process. As far as certain name brands I have never heard of any that are best. The thing you want to really understand is the size of everything.

The collet and collet body have to match the size of the tungsten, the collet goes into the collet body, which holds the tungsten in place after the backing cap is tightened.

The cup size is also very important I would suggest the largest as possible. If you use a small cup this may cause turbulence in the gas flow out of the cup.

I don't know why everyone on here is so obsessed with gas lenses. If you are not welding any high quality, x-ray, or super structural parts than they are NOT necessary! Don't waste you money on these because you can't interchange the collet parts with a regular cup. These gas lenses are great but are also big and you can't get into small places all the time.

Don't argue with me about this you other h-tech welders. Ex. that why gas lenses are not always the best: I am currently working on some type of military missle launching base that has to hold up to 1000 lbs of force and is all 6061 with a v-groove vertical up weld. Nobody could pass the x-rays until we switched from dynasty to a syncrowave without gas lens. For some reason not sure why but we have tried every possible combination and this is the one that works the best with out porosity in the RT. We went to extreme lengths to clean and preheat everything shy of puting it an sealed environment.