How Often Do You Replace Your Cups?

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Recently, while tig welding carbon steel with er70s-6 1/16" filler rod, all my beads were turning out dull and dusty gray, with a copper color underneath the dull gray surface. After making sure my work piece and filler metal was spotless, changed tungsten, increased/decreased amps, I decided to try using some er70s-6 0.030" mig wire as filler rod. With the 0.030" mig wire, the beads came out clean and shiny, albeit significantly smaller. Initially, I began to question if my 1/16" filler rod was contaminated, as it was acquired with the purchase of a used tig welder (no idea how it had been previously stored). However, before giving up for the evening, I remembered I had another cup and seal in my cart, so I figured I would try one more time with a new cup and seal. To my surprise, with the new cup and seal, I didn't have any more dull, gray, beads.So my question is: How often do you replace your cup? My old cup had a yellowish color and some spatter on the inside. Is it likely my welds were being contaminated by a dirty cup or is it more plausible that the seal was old and worn out and leaking shielding gas?
Reply:i would say seal and crap inside the cup will out gas when it gets hotMiller Xmt 350Lincoln Ln-25Ahp 200xSmith Gas Mixer AR/HTig is my Kung FuThrowing down dimes and weaving aboutInstagram http://instagram.com/[email protected]
Reply:I've only been tig welding for about 16 months, and am on my second cup.  I'd only swapped out the original for another size.  I might try to clean the inside of the cup now, to see if it makes a difference.-AaronJet 17.5" Drill Press1942 South Bend 16x84 Lathe1980s Miller 320A / BP --- 2013 Power Mig 2562012 Jet 7x12 Horizontal BandsawVictor O/A Setup
Reply:When they break.
Reply:Originally Posted by mikecwikWhen they break.
Reply:#7 gas lens cups seem to break more often for me than everything else combined. I probably break 5-6 a year. Everything else breaks if the torch falls off my (very high) table.Lincoln Precision Tig 185Lincoln Power Mig 256Hypertherm PM 45Everlast 140STSmith O/A
Reply:Turns out the problem wasn't the cup at all!I was preparing for my next project, wiping down my filler rod with acetone when I noticed that some of the rods didn't have "er70s-6" stamped on the ends. Then I noticed that the rods missing the stamps also were not sticking to my magnets. At this point, I was becoming very suspicious of the mystery rods, so I cut one er70s-6 rod and one mystery rod in half and compared the metal below the surface. Sure enough, the unmarked rods were copper. The filler metal came with my Thermal Arc 185TSW, which I purchased used a few weeks ago. Why the previous owner thought it would be wise to store copper filler rods and er70s-6 filler rods in the same tube is beyond me.Earlier, when I changed cups and seemingly resolved the problem, it just so happened the next few rods I pulled from the tube were er70s-6, creating the illusion of problem solved.What really irks me is I didn't realize there are copper rods mixed in with the er70s-6 rods until after welding up part of a idle-set/throttle stop bracket. Wire brushing the weld beads revealed a copper blob right in the middle of a weld. It isn't an insignificant amount, either. I'm torn between scrapping the part and starting over for fear of the weld failing, or proceeding anyway and see what happens. Then again, if it were to fail during use, the only thing that would happen is the car won't idle and its on a race car, so it isn't like it could create a safety hazard by leaving me stranded at a stop light. If it fails on track, it would have zero effect on the car until the session is finished.How much is a blob of copper going to compromise the integrity of the surrounding weld?