Welding Q

I need to weld a stainless gas tank, out of .025 material. I have some 1/16 stainless rod but its just too thick and is warping the **** out of it. I have a bunch of .032 inconel safety wire that I've used to weld on a practice tank, and seems to be working alright, but I wanted to make sure that it was ok to use. The tank will be holding E-85, and I figure the inconel will be more corrosion resistant than the stainless, and I know you can weld inconel to stainless, but I wasn't sure if the safety wire would have something different in it that might make for a weak/porous weld.

Thanks,
Eric

 

Personally, I wouldn't use safety wire as a filler rod, especially if you are using this as a fuel container. It could very well have some other alloys in it that could cause pourosity. As for corrosion resistance, stainless will do you just fine. The corrosion (if any) would be so minimal, it wouldn't matter. Stainless has a bad habbit of warping like hell any time you put heat to it (way worse than mild steel). It is just the nature of the beast. I'm sure you know this already, but the key to welding stainless is to put tack welds all over the place. Hope this helps.

 

Chain your tacks together, grind, repeat. When you've got a good solid bead, it'll show.

Flatman

 

I would go get some .030 308L Stainless filler. Inconel doesn't flow as well, its kinda "sticky". Plus its not to healthy to handle and weld...I have used it a number of times to weld up vacuum chambers. Any welding supply shop should have .030 filler, you will not need very much I would think.

Just my 2 cents
good luck

 

for thin stainless I use a legnth of .032 stainless wire from my mig after i have it tacked in place.

 

Thanks guys, I've had some .035 stainless wire on order from airgas for a few weeks, but they're taking their sweet time and this needs to get done quickly. I'll go get some stainless MIG wire tomorrow.

 

I did a post on how I made a gas tank for my F-1 truck a long time ago, in stainless.
If you can't find it, the gist of it was that I did not make the sides meet at an angle at the corners, and weld them there, too much warpage. I hammered in a half of a radius on each side that met at the sides. When you weld the seam it doesn't warp much at all. The curvature of the metal locks it in, so it doesn't warp the sides. In any case, it doesn't make the flat side warp like mad. The tough part is the corners where the 3 sides meet. You have to make a slit or 2 to get it to meet in a nice radius there.

 

Flexi...try Metroplex Welding Supply. They haven't let me down yet. They have a location on Northwest Highway in Dallas.

And do what these guys suggest and use .030-.035 stainless.