John P. wrote:

On Mon, 09 Jan 2006 01:03:46 -0600, Jon Elson
wrote:



I got mine on eBay from aglevtech,
who has a huge amount of TIG parts that he sells WAY cheaper than the
local dealers.



I just checked out his auctions and the prices are impressive. 2%
tungstens for $20 (including shipping) is 1/2 what I pay locally...



Again, a gas lens makes this much less of a problem. There are
a few situations that are so cramped a gas lens gets in way, but
I haven't needed to go back to my old collets yet. And, the gas
savings really starts to add up. I didn't realize when I got
into this that the Argon would be the most expensive consumable!



I guess I've never seen a gas lens in use. Could you describe a
little more how it is employed? Where does it connect to the torch,
etc?

It goes directly in place of the collet holder for the electrode. It is
a little
fatter than the plain collet holder, so it takes a larger diameter cup.
It has several
layers of fine wire screen that collapses the turbulence of gas shooting out
of a small hole.


Personally I have a Lincoln Precision TIG 185 with the standard torch.


I think you can get gas lenses for just about any TIG torch. I have a
water-cooled
300 A torch.

Jon