Would you like to spend a whole bunch of money and buy a whole bunch of Tig welding rods, one for every metal type, or would you me to boil this whole thing down for you and save you a lot of time aggravation and money?
Would you believe that only 3 different Tig welding rods will weld about 98% of the welding jobs you will ever encounter? I recently wrote another article listing 11 rods that will weld darn near everything. But a lot of people with never, ever weld metals like titanium and magnesium so I simplified the list to the bare minimum different tig welding rods you need.
Have I got your attention yet? Or maybe you enjoy collecting TIG rods you might never use. So what are the 3 rods? Are you sure you can handle this?
OK here they are …
- Hastelloy W
- Aluminum Bronze
- 4043 Aluminum
Lets explore this a bit further and let me explain exactly what you can weld with only 3 different tig rods.
- Hastelloy W will weld any steel. Let me say that again. ANY STEEL! Tool steel, low medium and high carbon steels, low alloy steels, 4130, stainless steels, cast iron, nickel alloys, cobalt alloys, and each of these to any of the others. The "W" in Hastelloy W should Stand for "Wonder Rod". its almost magic.
- Aluminum Bronze will weld any copper alloy to any other copper alloy. It is also an awesome rod for tig welding cast iron and for welding steels to copper alloys.
- 4043 aluminum is the most commonly used tig welding rod for general purpose aluminum welding.
Now let me be straight with you. For critical applications, you need to know what it is you are welding and this down and dirty information should not be used in lieu of engineering documents. But for general maintenance and repair welding where you just need to get it done … these 3 rods will pay you out time and time again.
Here is one more tip … get some E70S2 mild steel TIG rods just because they are really cheap and are fine for all types of mild steel as well as 4130 chromoly.