Well I had a major work emergency this weekend. so I kind of got thrown into tigging stainless this weekend.

I had custom swedged end cable assemblies made for this stair system.




basically the tards that made them couldnt tell the differance between right and left hand threads

soooo.... i made them go back to their shop on sunday and fix as many as they could. I ended up having to cut and weld 3 threaded ends to swap from rh thread to left hand thread. I weld flat mild steel most of the time. I do not ever weld anything out of stainless so natually I dont have any stainless filler (this happened saturday after the welding supply place was closed) So i ended up welding 303 stainless fittings together with 3 strands of 316 mig wire twisted together. THIS HAD TO BE DONE TONIGHT because I have to pass code tomorrow morning.

My question is this. I know it is not recommended to weld 303 and if it must be done to use 308l filler. Will this hold up? There is about 10lbs of pressure on these turnbuckles.

here is my weld. first time doing stainless.



ignore the part that looks severly undercut on the left side. i suck at taking pictures so it's not really that horrible. the welds will obviously be ground out. If there is no way this filler/ base metel combo will work I can make the *insert profanity* people who swedged them make me some more but it will take a week or so to get the parts for it.

If the weld is shitty let me know. I've got thick skin. lemme know where i can improve.

setup was
1/16 tungsten red band
100%argon @ ~18
ghetto emergency filler (it was .023 mig wire)
max amps set at 65.
root pass with no filler.
cover pass with filler.


edit:

the fittings have ~3/32 wall thickness after swedging.

 

your weld looks ok...from the center portion to the right it looks consistent with a nice heat zone...but the left side of the pic does look severly undercut, even if it is though, being as your gonna finish the weld, you could just build it up some

 

yeah it should hold 10lbs of pressure no problem, plus it doesnt look like its going to be taking a whole lot of abuse, just dont go doing that on parts that take a beating

 

Yeah, it should hold unless you're putting a lot of pressure on it.

In the future, put a small bevel on the parts so you can get better penetration than you would without.

 

what exactly is that in the first pic, anyway?

 

trying to keep his kid from jumpping out of the window? i swear that's what came to my mind...

 

It's actually a stair system. My father and I own a business building stuff like this. Note the cables that do not cross in the middle. it's part of a long story.

cliff notes. FD Lake Inc, of Grand Rapids, MI = Exploited Racing type "service"








I did put a small bevel on the pieces and did it in two passes. The base metel got hot REALLY fast. So it was a slow process. Kinda sucked cuz I was doing it at 3am(long story)

 

So what's the purpose in the cables? ....to tweak the frame back into shape after welding, or just for looks?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Engloid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">So what's the purpose in the cables? ....to tweak the frame back into shape after welding, or just for looks?</TD></TR></TABLE>

they are holding the center grates in place.

 

for their purpose weld quality really isn't a big deal. Just get em welded and finished...looks cool BTW

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 743power &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

they are holding the center grates in place.</TD></TR></TABLE>

exactly. it's 3:49 am and the job is done. i love my job.

at least no one told me to go die cuz they thought my welds suck thanks for holding back!

 

do you guys have a portfolio?

 

email me.

 

The tensile strength of super glue is more than 10 pounds. I think you're good to go...

I've got furniture and tools at work that are made of everything from A36 plate to Haynes 188 and welded together with Hastelloy X. Cracking usually isn't a problem until it gets under heat, then it goes all to ****.

 

Yeah I was 99.999% sure it would be fine but I dont like doing stuff half assed...ever so I figured I'd ask. Thanks for the responses.