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

[ronsii]

Funny, was wondering the same thing after seeing the posts on reconditioning tips and visiting art's site and watching some of the videos there...very informative, I must say with how plasma's work. Now that I have read jimcolt's reply I don't think it is worth it unless like he said you don't care about quality in the cut or an emergency when you run out of spares.


I would like to add one thing though, in the last few days just reading on this site picking up bits of knowledge here and there one person in particular seems to have the most definitive answers to technical questions on the plasma process....jimcolt So to you a big thanks for being on this forum and providing all this information to everyone