i just purchased soem 304L stainless steel bends in hopes of welding up a log sytle manifold for my integ .. but im reading here and there that i cant use a mig welder on stainless steel ?? **** .. im gettin majorly irritated here .. can someone help me answer this question of mine >????

 

Depends on the welder and the fillers used.

 

hrmm just regular fillers that are used to weld mild steel ? i dont need this **** to be rust free or anything .. i just thought it woudl be stronger to use stainless steel .... now im kinda kickin myself in the *** cuz it seems like you cant do it ..

gases and fillersa regular muffler shop woudl have


[Modified by project dc2, 7:00 AM 1/24/2003]

 

Try it with your setup and see if you can get it to work. you can weld stainless to mild. but it's just not quite as strong. Read: Should be fine for an exhaust system

 

Yes you can mig weld stainless - you just need the proper shielding gas and stainless wire. Talk to your local welding supply store. MIG welds are plenty strong (and can be almost if not as strong as a TIG weld), but one of the main disadvantages is that you can't weld in tight spots very easily due to the size of the nozzle tip. With a log style manifold you should be alright though.

 

You can definately mig weld stainless steel.

The hardest part about stainless is that you really need to back purge it because it crystalizes on the back side of the weld when exposed to oxygen (forms black metallic crystal junk). You can use solar flux, but back purging is going to work better.

You can buy solar flux from http://www.burnsstainless.com/Hardwa...vicecosts.html

 

I've yet to see a muffler shop that routinely works with stainless.

The advantage to using stainless steel is definately not in the strength area -- It's in the durability and resistance to corrosion/rust area. It also offers bling factor when polished.

 

just like it has been said you can weld stainless with a mig you just need to have stainless wire in the welder gun. If you have access to a tig welder I would recomend you tig it. Much stronger, cleaner, looks a hell of alot better. Idealistically anything you weld should look like a roll of coins.

 

most the diy people in here cant afford a $1200+ tig welder...

stainless work fine on a mig..

if you bought your bends from McMaster-Carr they will definately not be stronger.. their stainless butt weld pipes are schedule 10, the mild steel ones are schedule 40 (a lot thicker) so I am guessing the mild steel ones would be stronger, but stainless should look better once polished

 

Who ever sad that TIG is stronger than MIG? That's not true. Mig is just as good as the Tig.

if you wanna weld 304 stainless with the MIg, you'll need to go to the wleding supply store and pick up some 308 or 309 stainless wire for your machine

 

I think it's easier to make stronger welds with TIG. MIG can look great but have zero penetration -- but with TIG you usually know whether you have enough penetration.

 

Just a note, when I had my exhaust done the stainless muffler was welded to mild steel piping using the same wire and gas the guy uses (mild wire and 75/25 gas) on mild to mild welds with no problems.

 

Stainless should be welded to mild with 308 or 309 wire/rod. 309 is better, it's designed to join somewhat dissimilar metals.

 

i called up a muffler shop today and ask if they coudl do it. most of them said they could. i asked what wire one of the shops used he said he uses a combination wire ?? that has stainless and mild in it or somethgin so they can weld all sorts of metals ... is this legit or is he just pullin my chain ?

 

He's probably talking about 309 but it doesn't have 'mild in it'.

 

They have schedule 40 in stainless also. 316 or 304.

 

does anyone know how thick the schedule 10 is?

 

It varies depending on the size of pipe you're dealing with. Check this site for a nice calculator.
http://www.onlinemetals.com/pipe.cfm