Welding Stainless

[apprentice87]

Hi all, anyone know if it hard to weld stainless steel???

Reason for asking, is i need to make a long lasting re-inforced bird table. I have had a load of the ordinary wooden ones, and i attract loads of birds, especially in the bad weather, but the bird table does not last very long, as, although i can get a clear shot at them, the stray shotgun pellets beat the hell out of the bird table...

john

 

[apprentice87]

Nooooo, I was only joking!!!!! Just stitting here freezing cold and that kind of seemed amusing to my infantile brain [i am a welder!!!]

 

[steptoe]

its not meaga difficult if you have MAG/MIG and the right gas,

Im NOT a welder and Ive done OKish jobs on it [after having someone set the welder up for me, I might add, thats the welder bit, and Im NOT a welder!] .

 

[steptoe]

Nooooo, I was only joking!!!!! Just stitting here freezing cold and that kind of seemed amusing to my infantile brain [i am a welder!!!]

REALLY, can you do some for me? 

 

[steptoe]

Nooooo, I was only joking!!!!! Just stitting here freezing cold and that kind of seemed amusing to my infantile brain [i am a welder!!!]

but obviously not a good hunter,

try a .22

not much left of a sparrow then, 

 

[apprentice87]

Hi steps, i dare not print some of the sillier things i did when i was younger on here.... Well ok then!! One thing i did when i was about 13, is some idiot gave me a 6 volt ignition coil. Well, it is obvious what is going to happen if you give a loony one of them, they are going to get a 6 volt lantern battery and wire the whole lot up on a bit of chipboard and then go to school and electrocute the other kids!!!! john...

 

[NozSpark]

I thought that you had to TIG stainless??

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

A welder mate of mine TIG's all his stainless

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

I thought that you had to TIG stainless??

Must type faster.

 

[steptoe]

MIG/MAG/TIG

its all about the gas,

or more precisely,

its all about the skill of the tradesman,

I can hang a door, doesnt make me a joiner.  :|

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

When my mate Tigs stainless he also uses stainless wire, not all do.

 

[apprentice87]

You can gas weld it too, or at least you could once, when you could get the right flux!! Whether you MIG it or TIG it, all depends on the deposition rate you want, and the size of the weld.. Obviously if you were doing 2F fillets [A tee joint] in thick plate ten feet long, MIG would be the way to go, but if you wanted very pretty, small fillets, in say a decorative handrail, or thin sheet, or any pipe work say, then you would want a TIG.. As Steps says, gas and wire choice have a big input into things as well..

john

 

[kerching]

I can M'iG and stick weld it. Not bought a TiG yet!!!

 

[steptoe]

I have a little stick welder,

And am good with a grinder

 

[OnOff]

Read this earlier but been manic so only just got the chance to post. Been sat 300' on a crane trying to find a ticking bearing!

I have a lot of welding done in various forms. For stainless and aluminium it's mainly TIG. Done right it's an art form and the welds look very, very good. TIG I think allows more "control" akin to traditional gas welded. Less spatter than with MIG too.

I have though personally used plain ordinary stick/arc welding with stainless rods - copied some of those angle iron (50x50x3) aerial brackets that go on the gables. They came up a treat, BEWARE! The slag detaches itself with these rods and goes pinging across the shop leaving a vapour trail. Pretty in the cold air but a c*** if you're in the way! Weld it then cover or turn the work piece upside down!

My commercial fabricator will TIG the lighter stainless stuff using pretty much pure Argon gas. For heavier plate work he uses MIG with "Argoshield Heavy" gas which is a mix.

Hope this helps.

 

[Marvo]

TIG is better if you want it to look good. It keeps the heat down to a minimum and local in the area of the weld so there's almost no discolouration and distortion. If you're not so worried what it looks like after it has been welded then you can use a braising rod with a torch or you even use silver solder. We have a spot welder in the workshop that's also handy for tacking stainless plates or rods up to 3mm thickness. If it's just a few welds then it won't be worth buying the kit or the learning curve, rather go to a local engineering shop and get them to do it.

 

[kerching]

I was going to mention the slag...pings off like broken glass....evil stuff

 

[OnOff]

You can to a certain extent acid etch the stainless work piece to help get rid of any minor discoloration and give the work piece a more uniform look................if you overheat stainless then it can become.............well NOT stainless and you'll get localised rusting. These joints on a kiddie car were done with TIG:

 

[apprentice87]

Hi all, Some grades of stainless were quite bad for rusting where they had been welded.. They sorted this by making extra low carbon stainless. When being welded, the carbon in the steel would combine with the chromium, with the result that the welded bit was no longer stainless!! "weld decay" it was called..

john

 

[Hightower]

Welding stainless required pure Argon, insted of the plain old argashield mix. 

Stainless wire is a good idea, no point filling stainless with a mild steel wire. 

Reminds me of being asked to plate a transit floor for a mate who had a garage, he told me that he had a 210mig on site so i went down in the car with just my helmet. 

arrive to find the bottle that they have on the back of the welder (not connected) was a bottle of O2, i would love to have seen them try and weld with that if they had somehow got it connected.

In the end i ended up using the Acytlene sisters to gas the floor of the tranny, wasnt pretty but got it through the MOT