Electrode reconditioning

[vmax549]

Has anyone tried taking a used electrode and drilling the tip and inserting a piece of tungsten tig electrode . It seems I throw away a LOT of perfectly good pieces of electrode that just needs a new arc point inserted. WOuld it last any longer using the tungsten?

Just a thought, (;-) TP

[Ironman]

That would not work. Halfnium is a rare earth that strips electrons from the beam, and tungsten is just another metal.
The way to recon electrodes is to chuck them in a lathe gently so as not to damage the fins. Then cut back the tip to expose fresh halfnium and remember to keep the same tip profile...rounded edges. You can cut back about .030 and after that you will have start issues.
Some guys in shops chopping with hand held torches just grind the tips back on a bench grinder.

[jimcolt]

Tungsten is actually used on plasma cutting electrodes that do not use an oxidizing gas......so no air or oxygen, just nitrogen, and other gases. Facing back an electrode even to .030" will affect cut quality in terms of edge angularity. If you want a few more (maybe 20%) starts out of your torch, but don't care much about quality...then this practice seems to help out. The spacing between the inside of the electrode and the inner bor of the nozzle is maintained to pretty tigh tolerances.....facing off the electrode throws these tolerances out the door.

Jim