I just bought a Miller 135 and got the standard .030 wire for mild steel. I have to weld a Stainless flange to Schedule 40 weldels.

Will the wire i'm using and the C02/AG flux work for welding stainless to mild steel?

 

You can use that wire but, I suggest Tig for welding dissimilar materials for best results though

 

You should not use mild steel wire to weld stainless.

Use 309 wire to weld stainless to mild steel. You can also get away with using 308 wire but 309 is best when welding mild to stainless.

You can buy them in 2 pounds spools for a reasonable cost.(about 14.00 last I recall)

You can MIG weld stainless to mild very nicely and successfully, but it does take practice....

Hope that helps!

Dave

 

Thanks, i dont feel like getting another tank of sheilding gas or spool wire for one weld. so i'll drop the collector off at a local fab shop for a 20$ welding charge. should only take them 10mins.

Man this stuff is fun......collector is done, just need to get welded to the stainless T4 divided inlet.

 

You are absoloutly fine welding stainless with non stainless wire. If you weld it properly it shouldn't crack any more than mild steel. The only thing is that it will rust. But it would rust anyways if you welded with stainless wire and you don't pasify it after. And a mig weld can be just as strong as a tig weld, maybe even stronger.



[Modified by legendboy, 11:29 AM 3/17/2003]

 

Have you done it before? I could care less how it looks or if it rusts. My requirement is strength and resistance to cracking or just falling the fack off

I did a small spot weld and then cut into it and it looked like a good weld. It looked just as if i cut into the metal that had no weld in it.

 

use 309

either that or tack it then have someone tig it.

 

I've done it plenty ... I always use mild wire when welding stainless to mild and never had any probs...my cat is stainless, my muffler is stainless, and all my piping is mild. running about 1 year and no probs whatsoever.

 

you know that an exhaust manifold encounters extra heat and weight being the extra stress that your cat and muffler dont really go through.

 

it doesn't really matter, your using schedule 40 pipe which wont crack itself, so as long as you weld it properly it will be fine.