April 22, 200917 yr I was wondering if anyone new exactly how dangerous the mildly radioactive TIG electrodes can be. If handled too often, is radiation poisoning possible?
April 22, 200917 yr "They" put that scare out several years ago. an extreme case of over exaggeration to say the least. I have been welding in GTAW, GMAW, SMAW, FCAW, & SAW since '73 and I don't glow in the dark! You would have to breath the dust for days to get enough to cause damage....come to think of it I may have gotten too much back when I was younger, all of my kids were born NAKED....Agreed, caution should be used but the severity has be blown out of porportion. A contrator that works for us had all of the wheels removed from their bench grinders to keep the welder from grinding tungstun! Another case of OVERKILL. With further research they put the wheels back on! The contractor is an international contractor....
April 23, 200917 yr +1 however many great electrodes are available with out thorium....probably some are even better
April 24, 200917 yr Its only the red tip (thoriated) electrodes that are at all radioactive, and very mildly at that. Don't worry about it, just take reasonable precautions not to breathe the dust in and never think about it again. If you are a worrier about that sort of thing, just go for some of the alternative (non-radioactive) tungstens that are now available. Cheers, Al.
April 24, 200917 yr coleman lantern lamp sack also contain Thorium, FWIW For some reason I thought it was Cerium, and not Thorium, but in any case, in the 90s, they switched to Yittrium.
April 30, 200917 yr I thought the coleman mantles had Strontuim something in them. Yttrium?? hmmm... just checked on it... Coleman does us yttrium oxide now...non radioactive.. but the knockoffs made in India or wherever still have something radioactive in it... the warning label doesn't say what....
April 30, 200917 yr I use 2% thoriated tungsten on all my tig welding, aluminum, steel, stainless, etc. Been using it for over forty years. I don't know the link, but on WeldingWeb™ there is information about the risk which turns out to be very very low. Something like over an average lifespan, you might lose a day. cough, cough, wheeze Edited April 30, 200917 yr by steve sells url clean up
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