Tig gases.

[Tommy B.]

I have a quick question that I hope someone can answer. I have a synchrowave 200 and currently run argon. A friend gave me a full large cylinder of 98% argon/ 2% CO2. I'm in the process of welding a roll cage in my race car and was wondering if this gas combo would be detrimental to the integrity of the welds. The bottle hasn't been used in a few years from the looks of things as well.

What are the recommendations of people with more experience than myself?

Thanks,
Tommy B.

[shadetreewelder]

I wouldn't recommend it, the CO2 would be very detrimental to your tungsten.

That blend is for MIG use not TIG.

[Tommy B.]

Thanks Shadetree. That's what I suspected, but was unsure. It looks like I'll have enough gas for the rest of rest of my life. For the MIG that is.

[Anti-GMAW]

Inert gasses only for GTAW. You could do some pretty nice spray arc with that 98/2 though if it's 2%O2.

[Leons2003]

Miller has an education site that answered alot of questions for me, you might pass a glance.
Good luck
L*S

http://www.millerwelds.com/education/library.html

[dabar39]

I would highly discourage using this gas for welding roll cage materials. What are you building and where will you run it, just curious as I'm a circle tracker myself. dave

[Tommy B.]

Hey Dave, I'm running spec miata and mostly outside of New Orleans. Been doing it for about 4 years now and finally decided to build another car with a lot better roll cage and all the other bells and whistles. The car had about 10" of water from the storm and that didn't help the rust problem. I drive road courses, but did a high banked 1/2 mile high banked in Mobile. It was a lot of fun.

Thanks everyone for the advice.
Tommy

[handirod]

Please excuse me because as usual I’m going to change the subject real quick. I meant to ask this a long time ago, but I thought Co2 was used so a guy could save a few bucks instead of using Argon when running his mig….? What & why would this 98% / 2% mix ever be available for anyway? You wouldn’t be saving hardly any money because heck, its 98% Argon. I've just been wondering about this & couldn't let it go without asking. Ok, Sorry to keep this thread going. Think its time to file this in the archive drawer & I won’t be so tardy on my next question! Thanks guys!

[MAC702]

CO2 does a lot more than save money.

Nutshell:
100% CO2 will give greater penetration in short-circuit transfer.
75% Ar / 25% CO2 is a very typical mix for short-circuit transfer with least spatter.
90%+ Ar mixes will allow high-amperage machines to use the spray arc transfer; sometimes these mixes are as high as 98% Ar, with the balance being CO2, or sometimes 2% O2. I use a 97% Ar / 3% CO2 for both short circuit and spray arc of stainless steel also.

You can really research a lot on this subject at www.weldreality.com, though the guy that runs the site is a little biased about some things.

Running 100% argon will give extremely low penetration in GMAW.

[handirod]

Thank you very much for the info & I will check out that website you speak of. I’ve been welding for 20 years or better and I’m still learning & not afraid to admit it. Heck, if this stuff was easy everybody would be doing it. I’m sure glad I recently stumbled onto this website because I’ve gained a lot knowledge & tricks that has helped! Hopefully I can help somebody else out on this website but being a company rig welder I have come to the conclusion that there’s not too many people here that welds on high pressure pipe or boiler tubes that has to be x-rayed. Recently purchased Sync. 350 for the shop for tigging aluminum & other things. So I’m playing catch-up on this machine & Paul has helped me out a bunch. Thanks again! Rodney