I’m new to tig welding and learning to dc tig at the moment and ran into the same issue. Thank you for doing the video and I will be sure to change my tig rod storage.

I hate it when frustration hits its boiling point, thanks for sharing. I hope the ol' Miller is allrite. Nice work.

Good to know about bakers gas... Ive been eye balling a plasma torch on their website for a hot min.... Cool shop furniture project.

Nice build. Looks clean and serves a purpose. Cheers.

Nice and simple i like it

Shop projects and upgrades just keep paying dividends. Great vid!

Had the same problem..i got a small dehumidifier and that thing pulls moisture out of my workshop like crazy i have to empty it twice a day..i live in the sub tropics in Australia and we get over a meter of rain a year and that little beast solved my problem for $45..

Purchased some Blue Demon 4043 recently. It is the dirtiest rod I have used. I always clean rods with acetone prior to use and it is loaded with black oxidation. The Vulcan rod and Radnor are much clearer out of the tube with very little black oxidation.

To bring your rod back into proper humidity level , can’t you build a heated cabinet to keep your tig rod dry?

Those containers work great I have my sitting outside in the cold in the back of my truck an I never have a issue with the rods

That's weird that even after cleaning everything it was still a problem. Could be a bad batch of rods? Regardless, the new storage solution not only stores the rods better, looks a heap better, too.

Morning man! With editing and all I don't know your full process, but I don't think I've seen you clean your rod before. Just before welding, I usually pull my rod through a tightly pinched piece of scotch brite and finally through a blue towel with acetone on it. It makes a world of difference. Currently my rod sits in boxes on a shelf, I've been meaning to pickup tubes like you have, but it just hasn't become a priority yet. lol Good luck!

I would try putting the old Tig rod in an oven for a bit before I would scrap it.Even if you have to cut them in half.Aluminum loves to soak up moisture.Anyways great video as always.

get rid of the gas lens for aluminum, use a standard #5 cup

I'm surprised you haven't noticed your tools and other steel sweating from the natural gas fumes.

I am sure by now you have dumped the tig rod but if not, have you tried hitting it with a propane torch or some way to heat it up and remove moister? I know it works on stick rods but if the tig rod is holding only a little and it can be "cooked" out and then wiped clean at least that is $50-80 or more of rod you don't have to waste.

I think you are going to really like having the sealed Tig Guards for your rod storage. I've been using them for all of my TIG rods for just shy of 20-years now after experiencing some odd issues at my last shop. That's being said, I don't think I'd scrap or completely condemn the TIG rods from your boxes. I think you could drag them through some Scotchbrite pads and acetone to remove any contaminants and then insert into the sealed containers. I think they will work fine afterwards and I'd hate to see you scrap good consumables. As for the black appearance of the second weld that you showed, I personally think that had more to do with being on the backside of the initial weld. I think it may have pulled some contaminants into the puddle that were drawn in from the backside of the initial weld. I fabricated a variety of purge boxes years ago that serve to fight off contamination of the backside of a weld if I am going to weld both sides of a bracket or something similar. Hope that makes sense. Very nice design and execution of the holder. Mike

You should be able to tell if moisture is a problem if you have steel tig rod stored under that window also because it would be rusting. If you watched that video with Chris Razor he said only uses certified gas. He said its worth the extra money.

Hey don’t throw them out take burn barrel turn it side ways and heat them up that may kill the condensation

No red, white and blue containers? lol Looks good.

I don’t suspect moisture is really the specific issue. But the air in general. I’m guessing if you put the two filler rods next to eachother you’ll see the one is hazy/dull colored. Aka the aluminum oxide is thick. I store my stuff in a rod gaurd, but i have had more issues with steel wire

I have the same containers for my tig rod

Before you throw away all the 'old' rods, try wiping them clean with alcohol and see if they are still usable. Good luck, greetings from the Netherlands.

Nice rack! I've had more issues (in my non-climate controlled shop) with steel (ER70S-2 & S-6) filler rods, than aluminum. Hope this solves your issues; but I'm leaning towards something being wrong with the old filler (not storage related). What vintage/brand is it?

It'd boil down to contaminated Argon, Tig Electrode or Tungsten.

You should look up crummy welding he does a lot of aluminum he says different scotch bites can be horrible on aluminum.

I live close to you and wish I could get your “problem rods” from you. It’s not them. It’s an intermittent problem coming from a dew point issue with your gas. It will come back. Change your gas bottle and ask your supplier “Baker” to do a Dew Point test on their process of filling.

Can you bake the moisture out of the old rods?

Show me the old ones so I can practice it

I think thats a problem with your Gas coverage and cupe-size. For Aluminium take a #6 oder #5 Cup and round about 12 CFH pure Argon. A stubby Gas lens works perfekt with aluminium!