I have amassed some parts to build my own stainless exhaust. I have not welded stainless before but understand it can be donw with MIG. I have a MIG welder but was wondering if anyone had any advice on welding stainless. Gas? Wire size? Temp? Bead or tack welds? Looking forward to getting going on it!
It can be bit more difficult than reg steel. You are best just practicing on some scrap for a wile. You will find that the speed you move and wire speed is key to getting a good looking weld. Move to slow or have to much wire speed and there will be lots of splatter. Wire speed to slow and the wire will want to weld to the tip. Iv only used 035 wire and argon o2 mix…..iv tried the argon o2 helium and found no difference.
Thanks for the input. Soemtimes it is hard to find reliable information, so your feedback is apprieciated.
I welded up the stainless windshield posts on my roadster after a chop with my mig with 75/25 mix gas. Groundd them down and polished them out. I honestly didn't notice much difference from mild steel welding.
I mig welded my stainless exhaust when I was very new to mig, imo, it was about the same as welding mild steel. I had a harder time with the "tube" part of the job than the "stainless" part. I want to say that if mild steel is a "3" on the difficulty scale, stainless would be a "4". 75/25 gas
I'm not a real good welder but I weld stainless the same as steel, except for changing gas , and don't really notice any difference. I use a Lincoln 170 MIG
Made up some solid stainless nerf bars. Used MIG .030 stainless Er309L wire with 75/25 mix gas. A little more splatter tha straight argon. Worked well for straight stainless or stainless to mild steel connection. The stainless wire weld will polish.
yup..you can just use your regular mig gas and some stainless wire... I chopped several sets of winshield posts and some stainless trim with no problems and great results using 75/25 like thunderbirdesq said.
Use Argon with 025 wire run the welder on a higher setting not as good as a tig but it will work. When I first started welding stainless this is how I would skin the cat.
one of the nice things about stainless is that it's hard to find shitty stainless... it's all pretty good metal which always makes it easier to weld. when I was in school all of us were afraid of Titanium, like it required some black magic or something.... at the time I worked in a bicycle shop, and it was well known fact that I had some decent skills with a tig torch... had a guy come in with a custom Ti frame that broke. couldn't really mess it up too much more than it was so he let me give it a go, needless to say it was the easiest shit I've ever done, actually ended up having a small "side business" welding up ti frames when I was in high school. off topic, slightly, but you get the point... it'll weld up just fine, just don't think about it too much.
All this is interesting, since the guy behind the counter of the Welding Supply outlet in town said I needed to use a tri-mix with CO2, Argon and Helium and wanted to sell me a tank at $158 for this one project. That is what prompted me to dg a little deeper. I get the feeling that the guy was not a welder, just a salesman who read something somewhere once.
HAHAHA he was a good salesman wasn't he. As the others said practice on scrap use your normal gas blend and whip up them exhaust.
It depends on what grade of stainless your welding for what wire you really need. 309 is for welding carbon to stainless but is a low quality wire because of the carbon content,however you can weld just about anything with it. 347 is an excellent grade just for your own info. I use strait argon for 347,316, and 75/25 for 308 or 309. Its actually very easy to do it just gets hotter than the dickens and doesn't cool off very quick. P.m. me and ill give my #if I can help in any way
I mig'd, ground and polished the stainless header on the I6 in the Peter Beater. Just switched the wire out on the welder. No big deal.
One thing on doing anything on stainless. Use only a stainless steel wire brush on it and do not under any circumstances use a regular steel wire brush or you will end up with rust spots/stains on the stainless that you can't get rid of.
From one FNG to another, thanks. I may take you up on it when I get going. I did think of that when I was a the supplier, but didn't pick one up - I will though.
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