TIG/GTAW Welding Supplies List

Theres quite a bit you need to know before you start the actual welding process itself. The weld process itself is a lot like oxyacetylene gas welding, if you have any experience. Instead of controlling the puddle by the distance from the puddle, you control the weld bead from the footpeddle, located under your weld station. This peddle controls the rate of current coming out of your tungsten. When you first start welding it can take a while to get used to the foot peddle concept.
Gas Type
Also you will need Argon gas. Argon is the most common gas to use, however you can also use a mixture of argon and helium. Argon Helium mixture is commonly used for people welding through thicker metals. If for some reason, you desire to use a mixture nobody is stopping you. However for beginner welders there best option is certainly Argon.
Choosing Your Tungsten
For now I will direct you to 3/32 Purple thoriated. It is the upcoming tungsten and quickly replacing many of the other common flavors. Selecting your tungsten is a more complicated subject we will go over in a later post. It can make a big difference, but 3/32 purple is nearly general purpose standard, 1/16 would also be great, but whatever you can get a hold of.
 Power Supply Unit
As far as Power supplies go, it is the same story for every type of welding process in existence. It depends on your budget, and how dedicated you are. The ideal conditions of a GTAW welder aren't hard, but many beginners, especially, and hobbyist can't afford them. I'll outline some key features to look for. 300 volts is an excellent maximum voltage for very heavy duty welds, however this is completely unnecessary many simple beads on 1/2 inch aluminum flatbar for example.

Two other things to look for are output, and duty cycle. Output determines the maximum output of the machine. Duty cycle represents the time the machine can weld at a certain power output. You want a nice balance between output and duty cycle, as it is useless if either one is extremely disproportionate.

New power supply units are inverter-based. These can get very expensive, I won't defer to these machines. I'm assuming anyone reading this article that knows of inverters, is simply readings this a refresher or something of the sort.

Metal Type:
For beginners I would start out using aluminum for several reasons. First of all aluminum is a very easy to control the puddle, compared to something like copper. It is also very lightweight, easy to handle, and relatively cheap. Also the aesthetics of a finished aluminum bead, i believe, is the most nice looking, and smoothest of them all. You can get aluminum quarter inch flatbars at a local steel outlet and filler rods can be found in abundance online.