I have to do a lot of stainless steel fabrication and I was wondering if you guyz could give me some pointers on satiless steel. I have never welded anything stainless steel.

 

Tig or mig ?

 

I dont even know what TIG or MIG means.

I have a lincoln semi(you adjust the speed and power and when you hit the trigger the wire is fed)

I am building a custom turbo manifold(dont worry i'm not starting from scratch I am merging 2 manifolds together)

I just need to make spot welds so once I am done with spot welding I will bring it to a shop to get the thing welded.

 

Wire Feed = MIG (basically... lets not get technical guys)

Anywho, to weld stainless steel with Wire-Feed welding or MIG, You will first need Tri-mix gas... and you will also need stainless steel mig wire which can be found at your local praxair or welding supply store.

 

Do I need the gas even for spot welds ??? I dont have that setup.. can I do without it even for spot welds ?

 

Yes, you need the gas, even for spot welds.

You don't nessessarily need tri-mix. I have welded stainless just as well with cheap 75Ar/25CO2 or 100Ar.

 

Crap ! looks like I'm gonna has to fork a few hundreds to add the gas kit.

 

Honestly, I have welded stainless with flux-core wire before. I only did that because I ran out of gas and needed to make a quick repair.

But the weld will rust, and you will never be able to polish it up like the stainless.

 

yup 75/25 works fine for SS

you can use flux core.. just wire wheel the spatter off... when the welder TIG's over it.. you wont even know your spot weld was there.

 

I just tried 97argon/ 3co2 for stainless MIG. It worked really well, supposed to be a little better then trimix for material under 1/4".

 

Pure argon works pretty well also.

 

Can you guyz give me pointers on what the gas kit looks like. I think I know what it is but a picture would be nice to let me know I got teh right thing.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Engloid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Pure argon works pretty well also.</TD></TR></TABLE> Have you had good luck with it? I have a hard time avoiding a high crown with it....

 

ditto^^^^^^^^^^^ but that is usually more of a penitration issue.

 

do what i did! tack weld everything together with the MIG and have a pro TIG weld it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 2point2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">do what i did! tack weld everything together with the MIG and have a pro TIG weld it.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

isn't that what he said he was doing?

 

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

isn't that what he said he was doing?</TD></TR></TABLE>

yes.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AccidentproWn &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">isn't that what he said he was doing?</TD></TR></TABLE>