Newbie looking for advice.....

[vicar]

Hi all,

Have decided to buy some stainless exhaust parts and thought i would weld them up myself if i can get the right parts.

I have a mig welder and have done basic mig welding but never with stainless.

Can you guys tell me what i would require to use my mig and weld stainless and if there is anything to watch out for when attempting this project if i go ahead.

Many thanks in advance........

Tv.........

 

[malcolm]

Welcome.

I've only ever botched stainless with MIG. Here's my exhaust: http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=18725

Stainless is sensitive to CO2, and the shielding gas would ideally have less than 2% CO2 (see http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/stainless.htm ) but many of us (me) will use Argoshield light as it's close ish.

So you'll need stainless wire and a shielding gas with low CO2 content. Other thing to watch is the reverse of the weld - goes all black and crumbly if there's a lot of penetration and no purge (purge is a feed of shielding gas into the tube). For a botch there's no need to bother with the purge, but it would get rid of that. Other than that it's much the same as mild steel to work with.