How to Choose the Right Welding Gas - Kevin Caron

[jimheflin]

A decade later and the guy is still spot on. BRAVO!

[krisk]

Some things to add to the conversation. The cheapest way to mig weld and for the hobby guy would be 100% co2. the trade off is more spatter. 75/25 gives you less spatter and makes a pretty weld. If you are doing stuff with a lot of mill scale or need deeper penetration then 90/10 mix works well. For tig welding You can also add helium in with argon when tig welding aluminum. If you have a smaller machine this process with also a pre-heat of the material will almost double the maximum thickness that your machines is rated to weld.

[jryer]

Thanks Kevin, straight forward advice. TIG welding simply rocks, single gas makes things cheaper and easier. The three guys I watch on youtube for welding are you, Jody at weldingtipsandtricks, and of course Mr. TIG. I just started TIG welding and my first project was thin walled aluminum tube. Boy has that been a challenge, but I got'r done thanks to you guys!!

[gordjohnson]

Great info. You told us enough, but also told us where to do in depth research. I MIG welded years ago in various shops. Most places just used 100% CO2 back then ( 35 yrs ago). Things have come a long way since then. TIG is totally new to me, but I'm looking forward to trying it. I just bought an EVERLAST 160 tig/ stick machine that you approved and demo'd. Stick is an old friend but TIG ???? I'm glad there are guys like you to keep us old farts up to speed on latest, the greatest and the howto's. Welding never leaves your blood. Now I'm just a silly old dude playing with a few new toys and making a few things for friends, neighbours and family. Making steel framed picnic tables is fun and quite popular.

[frankkramer]

Good Job of explaining it . You are correct about WiKipedia . It takes the opinions of some out of the picture . Some have success with trimix and some just use 75/25 but its best to use the Trimix on thicker metals ...

[sunsetranch]

New to welding, thank's for the education Kevin.

[GregsGarage]

Nice explanations. Thanks Kevin. It's all clear as mud now!!!

[windtalkerxx]

Kevin Caron, thank you so much. 🙏🏻👍🏻 Very informative 💯

[michaelszczys]

I worked at shop where they started getting critical about the gasses for different jobs so we were always changing bottles. You had to coordinate your welding for the day. One gas for stainless, another for aluminized steel, another for structural. I worked real good though.
Where I work now, mostly TIG welding with argon they got a bottle of argon with 10% co2 by mistake and they wanted me to try and see if I could use it up. I tried using it for what I weld and seemed to work okay but a little ‘ sooty ‘ looking. Then I welded a part for machine that was going to be turned down. Guy came over later and asked what I did to it as it was hard as a brick and could barely turn it.
I took the bottle back to guys in charge of them and told them “ no, I can’t use it . You’ll have to try and exchange it “. That lousy 10% made lot of difference.

[rheidtech]

Lol. Kermit d frog welding school. Good stuff.

[lemeilleur]

thanks! seems very informative, im trying to get a gift for my father for Christmas and he recently bought his first welding machine even though he has years of experience, but he didnt buy tanks of gas, i dont quite understand what i should get for him but he's working with about 1/4 inch diameter bars of some metal, any help would be great i'll try get some more info.

[keithammleter]

I'm relatively new to MIG welding (been oxy-acet welding for decades) but learning fast. Kevin has omitted mentioning the key thing to understand what gas mix for a hobby welder or part-duties welder to choose: cost. Historically, CO2 was a cheap gas, but is not inert - it breaks down and chemically reacts at arc temperatures. Argon was ideal (doesn't react at all) but expensive. So what came about is various compromises. 75:25 Ar:CO2 mix, 88:12 etc. All these mixes work in welding mild steel, but at different welder unit settings. The more skill you have, the more you can tolerate CO2 in the mix. The thicker the metal you are welding the more you can tolerate CO2 in the mix. It happens that the only mix stocked by my local supplier is 88:12. It works fine for me (mild steel work). I obtained a bottle of 75:25 from a more distant supplier recently, just to try it. After I got used to it, and adjusted my welder, it too works fine, albeit with a bit more spatter and a bit of carbon.
These days (at least where I am located) gas price differentials have come down, so the incentive to save money by having a greater percentage of CO2 is mostly gone, and I'll be going back to 88:12. Note: reading the gas supplier's data sheets revealed that these percentages are only approximate.
A mix with helium in it is not available here - unless you buy in very large quantities.

[mehmetbuyukcelen]

Thanks, thanks, thanks alot Kevin good job.

[KevincaronSculpture]

Thank you,

Have you been to my website yet?

Lots to see over there also...

[eleazarwalker]

how do you open the gas for welding which side do you turn it to open and closed?

[firstmkb]

Thanks for posting this. I bought a multiprocess welder to learn TIG and a tank of 100% Argon. I swear I heard somewhere I needed to use 80/20 argon/CO2 and have been trying to figure out what to do about it.

I still don’t know what I’m doing, but now I don’t know LESS about what I’m doing!

[johncrea]

Kevin

Helium also has a place in TIG welding, especially welding THICK aluminum with a welder that maybe little underpowered. That plus pre-heating the aluminum can product some amazing results on really thick aluminum. Down side is that helium is expensive, so some folks buy a seperate bottle of helium and flowmeter and run the 2 gases simulaneously (y'd together before it gets to the machine) and dial in what they need. Less wasteful over the long run, but more expensive up front

John

John

[joergdrewelies]

You're right. Finding the right shielding gas can only be said by experienced welders. I've tried a lot of different shielding gases. In MIG, MAG, TIG. Some special shielding gases are really not needed for welding and cost a lot of money unnecessarily.

[donraabe]

I just picked up a pro 140. It came with a tank of 100% co2. Never welded with straight co2 before. Most of my welding will be anywhere from 1/8 to 3/8 steel. My local supply said he would exchange it for a tank of 75/25 mix if I wanted too. Not sure which way to go. Been welding with flux core and am tire of the splatter. Does 100% co2 splatter as bad as flux core?? Any help is greatly appreciated...
Thanks

[LikeASimpleLife]

wanted to thank you for the explanation and the best information is using Wikipedia, I know metals arc welding for years and yes it had all the mix percentages and pointed me right to the mix that will work for this project...