ER-70S-2 -vs- ER-70S-6

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I have been noticing a lot of people also use ER-70S-2 for Tig.  Is there a big difference between ER-70S-2 and ER-70S-6?I am curious, because when I went to the welding supply store, I asked the guy what rods he gave me and he was not quite sure, he said it was either of those.  What I did get was the ER-70S-6 and I was wondering if the other would help with better welds or not?The guy at my welding store is not very experienced.  When I was getting the gas lens, he did not know I needed a special gas nozzle for the lens.Thanks!Build a Barstool Racer at BarFlyRacers.com!
Reply:There are differences you may notice as you weld, and there are differences in the mechanical properties.70s-6 is a bit more fluid, but the weld deposit may be less ductile than -2.  -6 has higher manganese and  silicon, without the aluminum, zirconium, and titanium -2 has for additional deoxidation.
Reply:The only difference in those rods is the amount of silicon deoxidizers in them. They are identical rods otherwise.The higher number at the the end means there is more silicon in the rod. So, -6 has more than -2.The silicon will help with contaminents and wetting of the weld pool but with TIG I have found that it makes the puddle a little harder to control but not by much.If the material you are welding on is perfectly clean then the -6 will be a better rod choice but I always just use -2.I do prefer to use -6 for MIG as it makes a great weld.HTH- Paulhttp://all-a-cart.comWelding Cart Kits and accessories
Reply:Hey ZTFab,Would you recommend -2 for vertical and overhead TIG?  Being the puddle is easier to control with -2.Thanks!Build a Barstool Racer at BarFlyRacers.com!
Reply:I would recommend -2 for all TIG welding.It's all that I use.If you have the -6 it will work fine, especially for practice....but everybody has their preferences. you may like -6 over -2. Try both of them and see what you think.  - Paulhttp://all-a-cart.comWelding Cart Kits and accessories
Reply:I use both -2 and -6 with tig. Its hard for me to tell the difference. But I think -6 seems to flow better. I need to do a comparison on them. I'll try that and let you know.mm135HTP Invertig 201 With water cooler9" Southbend LatheLots of hand tools.
Reply:If the parts are to be plated(galvanised, anodised, chromed) dont use the s-6. The x-tra sillycone keeps the plating material from sticking as well.
Reply:Recently resurrected thread on the AWS site: http://www.aws.org/cgi-bin/mwf/topic_show.pl?tid=7836I only use the -2, as it is is required by WPS for many of the things I do (for control of silicon as well as the higher ductility than -6). -2 is less tolerant of contamination than -6 (usually....), but the difference is minor. For general use, I'd suggest the -6, since the puddle is a bit more fluid and -6 is (often) less expensive.
Reply:Originally Posted by enlpckRecently resurrected thread on the AWS site: http://www.aws.org/cgi-bin/mwf/topic_show.pl?tid=7836I only use the -2, as it is is required by WPS for many of the things I do (for control of silicon as well as the higher ductility than -6). -2 is less tolerant of contamination than -6 (usually....), but the difference is minor. For general use, I'd suggest the -6, since the puddle is a bit more fluid and -6 is (often) less expensive.
Reply:Dash 2 also contains titanium, zirconium and aluminum that dash 6 does not.Anything worth doing is worth doing RIGHT
Reply:Originally Posted by BWS29128I use S-6 exclusively for MIG, but I've used both -2 and -6 for TIG; the only difference I've really been able to notice are that -2 appears to work better when chasing the wire and -2 also seems to do better in O/H environments...and I'm pretty sure you're going to tell me that those differences are probably issues dealing with technique as opposed to properties of the filler themselves.