TIG Welding Consumables Brand vs No-Brand....?

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OK, I'm just getting started in TIG welding, I bought myself a new to me Panasonic WX300 TIG welder and it came with a water cooler and a water cooled torch, all Panasonic. You can see the thread about it >> HERE <<I'm looking online at a company that I do a lot of business with, Monotaro here in Japan, they are like Grainger (in fact Grainger owns part of Monotaro) and they have consumables for my TIG welder.I'm looking at the gas lens, and the name brand Panasonic ones are about $80 for a box of ten, the Monotaro brand (made in China for sure) are $15 for a box of ten. I'm just learning to TIG weld, I expect a lot of hard use of consumables, over heating, dropping stuff etc. Is there any reason to start with that I should be paying $8 a lens compared to $1.50? I guess if you have this welder hooked up to a robot running 12 hours a day or something that the name brand lenses would last a lot longer between swap outs, but....?Same thing with the collets and the collet bodies. I'm using a water cooled torch a YT-30TSW brand made by Panasonic, if that would make any difference.So what say you all, go for the inexpensive consumables while I figure out this TIG thing, or is there a real advantage in spending five times more at this stage?Cheers!Dragon D-150 Arc WelderHobart Handler 175 Set up with 100% CO²WT-60 Plasma Arc Panasonic TIG Star YC-300TWX-2 Panasonic YX-0092UW Water Cooler for the TIG
Reply:I'll give a example of less than stellar results using cheap consumables.  I run orbital Tig welders and we weld a lot of inconel. We were having issues on our welds not flowing good and wetting out at the toe and grey sooty beads. I checked all the usual stuff and came up scratching my head. Ended up being some cheap Chinese gas lenses, they look the same but there was something to do with them that flat out contaminated our welds. Ended up going back with a known proven part and with no other changes our beads went back to flowing well and wetting out and the pretty gold color came back. Who would think a gas lense could cause such a fuss, well in my case it did.My thoughts were the screens had something on them that wreaked havoc with the welds,oil film or?..... I'll never know but wont and can't chance quality over a few bucks. JmoLast edited by Showdog75; 02-13-2014 at 11:30 AM.
Reply:I'd  go with the name brand stuff while you're in the learning phase.  After you have sufficient experience try some of the less expensive stuff.  I wouldn't complicate the learning process with worries about equipment or consumables.
Reply:Thanks guys, I'll stick to the name brand Panasonic consumables. Cheers!Dragon D-150 Arc WelderHobart Handler 175 Set up with 100% CO²WT-60 Plasma Arc Panasonic TIG Star YC-300TWX-2 Panasonic YX-0092UW Water Cooler for the TIG
Reply:Yes, stick with the panasonic stuff until you are experienced to tell the difference. The difference between cheap Chinese copper parts and the good stuff is that the cheap chinese consumables is just soft copper. The good copper is Tellurium alloy copper and is holds up much better under high heat. So for 8 times the price, they last 100 times longer. Soft copper collets twist, bulge, compress, and choke off your gas flow. The good stuff is called high performance consumables. Mine are made by WeldTec here in the US.Last edited by shovelon; 02-14-2014 at 03:35 PM.Weld like a "WELDOR", not a wel-"DERR" MillerDynasty700DX,Dynasty350DX4ea,Dynasty200DX,Li  ncolnSW200-2ea.,MillerMatic350P,MillerMatic200w/spoolgun,MKCobraMig260,Lincoln SP-170T,PlasmaCam/Hypertherm1250,HFProTig2ea,MigMax1ea.
Reply:Originally Posted by shovelonYes, stick with the panasonic stuff until you are experienced to tell the difference. The difference between cheap Chinese copper parts and the good stuff is that the cheap chinese consumables is just soft copper. The good copper is Tellurium alloy copper and is holds up much better under high heat. So for 8 times the price, they last 100 times longer. Soft copper collets twist, bulge, compress, and choke off your gas flow. The good stuff is called high performance consumables. Mine are made by WeldTec here in the US.
Reply:Stu when you say "gas lens" are you referring to a part in your torch that has a screen in/over it?  Gas lenses cost way more money and wear way faster than a collet body.   In other words you have the option to either use a collet body (the collet slips inside the collet body) or using a gas lens (the collet slips into the the gas lens as it does or would if you were to use just a collet body).While learning, if I wanted to save money I would go with the collet body soooooo much cheaper and the results are virtually the same: I don't know that an untrained eye is going to see the difference.  Don't get me wrong, I am a big advocate of gas lenses and only use them.  That said, I have made thousands of x-ray quality welds carbon steel and stainless steel just using a collet body; so they should be plenty good for hobbyist, sculptors, small business.You see what will happen - probably as you are learning with a gas lense some hot metal (tiny bits of contamination) will fly onto that fine mesh screen of the gas lens.  Next thing you know is that the gas will not flow through the mesh screen freely and evenly (that is why gas lenses were invented - to do that) because it has these little bits of molten metal attached to the screen and the gas flow will now be more turbulent and act like you are not even using a gas lens .  So in conclusion while learning I would just use the collet body and it will last forever, then down the road you can buy some different size gas lenses.The only thing that really gets damaged a lot is the ceramic cups.   Seems like my tig torches always had a concrete magnet impeded in them and they were attracted to the floor.  About once in 50 times the cup will not break - that way always a good day.  Name brand doesn't matter when it comes to he cup being dropped.  They all are going to break, usually.  But even with that said - buy name brand, just shop around for the best price!Some kind of Big Blue constant current welding machineAnother smaller yet, Blue machine (it's got wire in it)
Reply:When I say ceramic cup I am referring to the alumina nozzle - the pink guy (usually).  A alumina nozzle or what we called ceramic cup is not a gas lens not collet body they are different individual items.  See:  http://http://www.usaweld.com/v/vspfiles/images/SR_20_Parts.jpg"]http://http://www.usaweld.com/v/vspfiles/images/SR_20_Parts.jpg[/URL]This link is acting weirdly .  If you just click on the letters "jpg" it will shown an image but if I click on the whole URL it takes me to a blank page!  Any who.... If you see the image, the item in the middle on the top row is a gas lens; the item on the bottom row is a collet body.Last edited by Dale Salisbury; 02-15-2014 at 12:55 AM.Some kind of Big Blue constant current welding machineAnother smaller yet, Blue machine (it's got wire in it)
Reply:Originally Posted by Dale SalisburyWhen I say ceramic cup I am referring to the alumina nozzle - the pink guy (usually).  A alumina nozzle or what we called ceramic cup is not a gas lens not collet body they are different individual items.  See:  This link is acting weirdly .  If you just click on the letters "jpg" it will shown an image but if I click on the whole URL it takes me to a blank page!  Any who.... If you see the image, the item in the middle on the top row is a gas lens; the item on the bottom row is a collet body.FIXED IT FOR YOU
Reply:Originally Posted by Stu In TokyoThanks for the clarification.So the part marked "2" the brass colored part is the gas lens, and the part marked 2A, the copper colored part is the collet body that fits into the gas lens?You need to use the img tags to get images to display, not the URL tag, which is for showing a link to somewhere else.Cheers!
Reply:Drf255 is correct.  In the proper set up you either use 1, 2, 3 together or you use 1a, 2a, and 3 together.Some kind of Big Blue constant current welding machineAnother smaller yet, Blue machine (it's got wire in it)