I plan on mig welding a stainless steel 8an fitting to the bottom of a steel fuel tank. Can I do this with flux cored wire in a standard mig? The same fitting also comes in zinc plated steel. Which would weld better? I've heard that the melting zinc would cause toxic gasses which is why I'm leaning toward the stainless steel. Thanks in advance for the help

 

stainless can easily be welded to mild steel

 

Hey there,

Yeah as speedway says you can do that.

I was curious about a week back I ended up welding some stainless steel nuts to some steel nuts using steel tig rod, along with stainless tig rod. both worked.

However On zinc, when you tig it it produces a hazardous gas.... I welded a bunch of zinc stuff and just had a fan vent the gas away from me... but then again it probably only causes cancer in California..

Zinc will weld, its just that when you do it kinda has a tendency to *** up your tig tip.. its just annoying.

Stick with stainless it welds great!

 

it will weld easily, if you try to weld the zinc stuff it gives off gasses ,they will give you a knock down bad headache, and it makes a mess of the joint you are welding

 

Thanks guys, what about with the flux cored wire? Someone on a different forum told me to not do that

 

Stay away from flux core, the welds look horrible.

Get yourself a good size wire .028 I think it is, get your gas flow right about 12-15cfm, do some practice welds, get the voltage/temp adjusted right it should puddle correctly and go to town.

I dont know if anyone who uses flux core wire if the welds look decent, the ones I have seen look poor.

 

You can soak anything that has zinc coating on in POR-15 metal ready and take in down to bare steel.Then just clean the POR stuff off good in water with a brush. I think there are probably some other chemicals that can do this too.

But yeah metal fever from welding can potentially kill if you inhale enough.

 

^~~ good info,

 

i used .025 stainless mig wire and played with the heat and wire speed till i was satisfied, kept my gas around 13cfm, worked great. when welding two unlike metals, its better to use the same material wire as the harder metal, stainless in this case, since the stainless will easily join to both metals, but mild steel wire will have poor penetration on stainless fittings

 

Yeah well use what works best for you. My dads friend was over a couple years ago when I was learning how to use a mig and mentioned when the heat and wire speed is right it should sound really crisp when welding. That's when you know you got everything dialed in right.

Next up learn how to use a Tig... It wont replace a Mig... actually the only thing I need a Mig for is doing body work, I tried it on a Tig and its just annoying as $hit and fails at every level. ... such as shaving door handles / welding inside thin steel holes shut for a show car... exct....

 

Using 309 rod (not sure if they make 309 mig wire?) would be the proper way of doing this.

308 or 316 rod will work too. Er70 or whatever steel rod you have will work but would be my last choice.