You will burn through it most likely not to mention I have never seen stainless mig wire small enough to even attempt it gotta use a tig.
It would be a lot like doing brain surgery with a jack hammer and a back-hoe. A rule of thumb, never weld anything thinner than your wire thickness. I think .023 is the smallest mig wire and I doubt stainless trim is that thick. Stainless is very runny when being welded, so trhat adds to the problem. Definitely a tig job!
i keep a 2 lb roll of 023 stainless wire for my mig to do stainless trim repairs, i have used it to fix trim for 20 years....
What's the preferred thickness for stainless exhaust tubes? Would the difference between that and trim be enough to matter? My skill level definitely isn't up for either, but I gotta practice sometime.
Home made headers. Tubing is .062 Stainless which is pretty normal thickness. Bends were all pieces tig welded together but the small tube assemblies were welded to the cone with MIG. Much less distortion on the cones with this method. Wire size was .030 stainless.
Nads did some MIG stainless work for his chopped El Camino, I think his thread is called Severe Bondo Abuse if you want to look for it. Looked pretty good to me. You have to be doubly careful about heat to prevent warping due to the thickness, and I've heard a brass backer to weld against helps a lot. But it can be done.
As metallurgist, the question of if the weld will rust is due to a characteristic called sensitization. It happens on stainless steels where the heat from welding actually affects the heat affected zone. Not the weld or weld filler material, but next to the weld in the HAZ. Technically what happens is the chromium (Cr) in the stainless steel combines with carbon (C) in the stainless steel to form chromium carbides, instead of the Cr being in solution of the metal. This causes a locally depleted zone with insufficient Cr to make it resist corrosion. So you get a band on either side of the weld that can rust. If your trim is low enough carbon this sensitization can be avoided. Or if the stainless is a stabilized grade it can also be avoided. In addition, since the car may not be exposed to a lot of water to enable the corrosion, it may not ever show up - due to it being no electrolyte (water) and not because it is not sensitized.
Old guy I knew use to mig the trim work on his cars. My 41 was his car and it has had the windshield trim migged and its been done a long time ago. You can see lines where the metal is rusting. It was regular old wire he used.
Very interesting discussion. Obviously, ebfabman has done some real nice work in showing us how to MIG weld some trim. My impression, as someone who has welded stainless trim with a TIG before, isn't that the trim couldn't be properly fused by the weld, but that the MIG process doesn't afford the user the minute control necessary to weld the thin stainless without blowing a hole through it or, conversely, erring to the cold side and having a weld that lacks penetration. I welded some stainless with an old scratch-start Miller TIG with no pedal or variable power adjustment. What I did to prevent the blow-through was to lay the filler rod across the weld seam and start the arc on the filler and not the stainless trim itself. I'll bite as well. What machine did you use to weld this? What type of amperage setting? Nice work man. Whenever people chop or modify cars and forget or omit the stainless trim it pisses me off. Taking the easy way out
no i seen what the finished product looked like. i just think the tig would have been better thats all. you proved you could do the job with the mig.
You quite probably did the welding with a mig, I don't question that. There is a difference between getting a piece done so it photographs and doing it efficiently so all the pieces look good in the sunlight and the job didn't take a lifetime to accomplish. This ain't my first rodeo and when doing stainless trim I would choose a different bull to ride! Posting a video will shut up all of us nay-sayers!!!!!!
Being the owner of a mig welder, I would like to know what machine was used, what 304 wire gauge was used, and what process you used to perform this process. Its something I would like to learn to do, but a head start from someone that has successfully accomplished the process would improve my chances of success a lot. I'm thinking maybe this might be some sort of plug to get me to buy some DVD, which, if it is the case, the whole thread sucks. Gene
You are highly skilled to say the least!! Welding is just the first step you conquered!! Did you use the hotter setting with faster wire speed to get the dot penetrated? Grinding skills really come into play plus sanding and polishing skills!! Great job!! Pete
I have done it, it's tricky, you just have to take your time, practice first, I use the edge of a thin cutting wheel to remove the bead, go slowly.
You guys are good! This should be a piece of cake then. Seriously where there is a will there is a way. That's "hot rodding" Pat
Nice job, too bad that when someone posts good Tech Info. on here there ALWAYS has to be a few clowns to start a small riot...... Now I will get a ton of flack for speaking my say in this !
I don't worry about what people say. Just believe in what you think is possible and keep trying. I have three mig welders. The one I used on the stainless trim is a Lincoln that was given to the teams when I was hanging bodies for a few cup teams. Its a 230 volt unit with a four position setting on the power. I used the lowest setting on the power and about 60% on the speed. I used a .020 302/304 stainless filler so it won't take much heat but you won't need a lot on thin trim. If you are getting a bump on the under side then you are getting good penetration. Grinding and polishing is no big deal, just be careful and go easy. There is no doubt tig welding for most people would be easier to control especially on thin stuff, but its by no means the only way. I'm sure a good mig job would be virtually impossible to distinguish from an equally good tig job when both are finished.
I've read all the posts and replies, a good welder can MIG stainless if they are happy with the finished look.. But for a perfect stainless weld TIG is the way to go, I can't understand why you would go 80% on a job if you had the time, skill, and TIG welder, but that is me. Bob
A perfect stainless weld is a perfect stainless weld. Mig or tig. No way to tell the difference by looking at the finished product.