{"id":2946,"date":"2010-07-23T15:54:11","date_gmt":"2010-07-23T15:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joewelder.com\/?p=2946"},"modified":"2010-07-23T15:54:11","modified_gmt":"2010-07-23T15:54:11","slug":"everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-thorium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.arc-zone.com\/joewelder\/2010\/07\/23\/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-thorium\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything you ever wanted to know about Thorium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/blog\/joewelder\/wp-content\/new_ups\/amplify_tung.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-2949\" title=\"\" src=\"\/blog\/joewelder\/wp-content\/new_ups\/amplify_tung.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"103\" height=\"220\" \/><\/a>As many TIG welders know, thoriated (red) tungsten has in the past, been a preferred tungsten electrode blend. \u00a0But that&#8217;s old skool thinking&#8211; there&#8217;s better options out there&#8230; more on that later.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re like me, you enjoy learning about all kinds of things especially as it relates to welding and metal fabrication. \u00a0I recently stumbled across this column over at Salon.com, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/id\/2257176\/landing\/1\" target=\"_blank\">Blogging the Periodic Table<\/a>. \u00a0It&#8217;s a fascinating look at each of the elements in the periodic table&#8211; \u00a0and each one has a story. \u00a0You can read all about Thorium. Though this column doesn&#8217;t include information on welding, there some interesting and fun facts sprinkled throughout.<\/p>\n<p>Now if you&#8217;ve been TIG welding for a while, you&#8217;re all too familiar with the RED tungsten electrodes. \u00a0This thoriated blend of tungsten electrode is popular because it is a good general purpose electrode (good for all metals and all machines) has excellent arc behavior and lasts long&#8230;. \u00a0because of the nature of thorium, however, there are some health concerns due to vapors and grinding dust. At Arc-Zone we recommend you only use it if you are contractually required to, especially as there are better alternatives out there.<\/p>\n<p>For more detailed information on health and safety concerns regarding the use of thoriated tungsten electrodes, check out the <a href=\"http:\/\/files.aws.org\/technical\/facts\/FACT-27.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">AWS Safety and Health Fact Sheet: Thoriated Tungsten Electrodes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We almost always recommend our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arc-zone.com\/index.php?main_page=index&amp;cPath=14_154\">ArcTime Hybrid Tungsten<\/a>&#8230;  it is truly a state-of-the-art improvement over the old thoriated electrodes with excellent ignition properties, low burn off rate and it lasts a long time!  I&#8217;ll let our spokes model tell you more about it:<\/p>\n<p><object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"400\" height=\"250\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/qN_orccH3ok&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1?color1=0x5d1719&amp;color2=0xcd311b\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"400\" height=\"250\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/qN_orccH3ok&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1?color1=0x5d1719&amp;color2=0xcd311b\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p>To explore other options, check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arc-zone.com\/pdf\/SelectingTungsten.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Arc-Zone.com&#8217;s Guide to Selecting Tungsten Electrodes<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As many TIG welders know, thoriated (red) tungsten has in the past, been a preferred [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,27,26,28,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arc-zonecom","category-plasma-arc-welding","category-tig-welding","category-tungsten-electrodes","category-welding-tips","entry","fw-tab-6 fw-tabr-4"],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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