Welding 1/8" 304 SS to 1/8" Mild.

[The_Beave]

Hi! I am going to be welding some SS hinges onto the engine cover and spreader chute of a very large salt spreader.

I have a lincoln weldpak 100. I believe I am supposed to use 308 welding wire and straight argon, but am open to anyone's advice.

None of the welding I am going to be doing is very critical. The hinges on the spreader are falling apart from rust, and aren't on anything critical.

I'm mostly using this opportunity to get used to welding mild to stainless as I have an exhuast system going together soon and i'll be welding SS to mild.

[aircraft]

309L

[Aaron]

Why straight argon? I use standard good-ol' C25.

[The_Beave]

Aircraft, thank you for the correction on wire type.

Aaron, I want to go straight argon so I can weld SS to SS on the aforementioned exhuast. I've heard you can also do that with C25, but am not sure if my welding skills are up to trying that.

[Mike Sherman]

Straight argon is a poor choice for GMAW of SS. 75/25 will work just fine for single pass welding. Argon is for GTAW of stainless. My personal preferance is for gas shielded flux cored stainless wire, easier to use with a better appearance and the recommended gas is 75/25.

[Aaron]

Mike,

You are certainly impressed with the SS flux wire, so I guess I am going to have to try it. Back to the welding supply, darn!

[Scott V]

One other way to make stainless solid wire work is to pulse it.That's if you have the setup for it.That will get rid of the high peaked bead,and does a good job with spatter.Plus my machine pulses with tri-mix,so only one gas to buy.I do get my tri-mix for the same price as 75/25,so that helps.

Aaron,you might want to get a spoolgun if you are not doing a lot of stainless.You might not like the price of a large roll of decent flux-core stainless.

[Aaron]

My MM251 handles the 2# spools fine. That is the only size I can afford to buy SS wire. Actually, I am almost through another spool, and I have already started pricing 10# & 33# SS spools.

[morpheus]

Originally posted by Mike Sherman
My personal preferance is for gas shielded flux cored stainless wire

What is the difference between gas shielded flux cored wire and just flux cored wire or are they one and the same ?

[Gary Patton]

Originally posted by morpheus
What is the difference between gas shielded flux cored wire and just flux cored wire or are they one and the same ?

The gas shielded flux core wire has powdered steel inside of a stainless steel outer wire. It will melt and lay down much better than a solid wire. The selling pitch for this type of wire is usually that it has a faster deposition rate (you can lay down more inches of weld in less time). It makes a pretty weld as well.
PS: someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think they make a self shielded stailness flux-core wire.

[Mike Sherman]

Gas shielded vs self shielded. Both are a tubular wire, hence the "T" in the designation. One uses an external gas for shielding, one does not. I am trying to keep it simple here. I am not aware of any self shielded stainless flux core.

[Roger]

Gas shielded flux core, metal core, and hard surfaceing tubular wire uses DC+ just like MIG.

[JohnV]

Has anyone found this wire in a smaller spool size? Please post the retailer you bought it from.

Thanks!
John

[DrIQ]

With solid wire in SS or mild steel you will get a very high crown on your weld with argon as the shielding gas as well as undercut on the toe lines of the weld, C25 would be a better choice.

I have welded with the flux cored SS wires on materials 3/16" and thicker with excellant results. I know that Mckay and Stoody make both gas shielded and self shielded stainless flux cored wires but I have not seen it in spools smaller than the 12" 25# package.

The .045 309L flux cored wire will run with CO2 or C25 but requires at least a 200 amp power supply the recommended current range is 24-26 volts at 180-220 amps. If you can find it in .035 dia it will still require 110-180 amps at 23-25 volts.

[Roger]

Here is .stainless steel .045 fluxcore wire made to weld from 18ga. to 1/4"

http://www.kobelcowelding.com/PDF/DWGbrochure.pdf

Hard to believe but setting chart looks like HH135 or HH175 could use this wire but it is on 28 pound rolls.