MIG TIG ARC and Stainless Steel?

jfkal

jfkal

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Anyone experience with SS welding?
I would like to do small jobs myself and am totally confused by the "expert" sales guys.

Questions:

Can I use a simple arc welder (with the right sticks) to weld SS?
Can I use a TIG welder also in ARC mode in order not to always mess with the
gas bottles unless the job calls for TIG (alu I guess?!).

Any practical experience insights are welcome :-)

Many thanks
 
SS welding

jfkal said:
Anyone experience with SS welding?
I would like to do small jobs myself and am totally confused by the "expert" sales guys.

Questions:

Can I use a simple arc welder (with the right sticks) to weld SS?
Can I use a TIG welder also in ARC mode in order not to always mess with the
gas bottles unless the job calls for TIG (alu I guess?!).

Any practical experience insights are welcome :-)

Many thanks
Click to expand...

What exactly do you want to weld, as it's horses for courses?
 
What thickness material do you need to weld?You can certainly arc weld stainless but anything under 4mm thick is going to be difficult.Tig is much more controllable especially if you have foot control but it needs a lot of practice before decent welds can be achieved.Stainless steel crystalizes when molten and exposed to the atmosphere which means that the underside of a weld in thin material becomes weak if not protected by an inert atmosphere.So yes it can be done but preferably thick metal only if you don't have experience.
 
I have welded SS with stick, anything thinner than 3mm or so will be tricky as even skinny rods will put too much heat into the weld. Skinny rods are also a pain as they're bendy. You need a DC welder to do it, the cheaper stick welders are all AC and won't work. You generally can use a TIG welder to do stick; most units will come with the necessary cables.

All TIG welding needs gas, it's in the name; Tungsten Inert Gas(more correctly known as GTAW; Gas Tunsten Arc Welding). All TIG units will weld SS, if you want to weld Aluminium you need a welder that can produce AC as well as DC current.
 
Good Info

Many thanks that helps a lot.
Besten Dank ;-)



penfold said:
I have welded SS with stick, anything thinner than 3mm or so will be tricky as even skinny rods will put too much heat into the weld. Skinny rods are also a pain as they're bendy. You need a DC welder to do it, the cheaper stick welders are all AC and won't work. You generally can use a TIG welder to do stick; most units will come with the necessary cables.

All TIG welding needs gas, it's in the name; Tungsten Inert Gas(more correctly known as GTAW; Gas Tunsten Arc Welding). All TIG units will weld SS, if you want to weld Aluminium you need a welder that can produce AC as well as DC current.
Click to expand...
 
If you use SS stick, make sure you wear either a flip-up welding screen or safety glasses under a non flip-up. Bits of slag will 'ping' off the weld and if you get some in your eyes it will ruin your day :)

penfold said:
...it's in the name; Tungsten Inert Gas(more correctly known as GTAW; Gas Tunsten Arc Welding). ....
Click to expand...

TIG is a British acronym and GTAW is American...

jfkal said:
Anything SS which needs repairing or improving. Certainly not stuff your life depends on such as chain plates :-)
Click to expand...

'Anything SS' is not a good enough answer :) As has been said, it depends on the thickness that intend you to weld. Another thing to be careful with is the tools that you use i.e. wire brush, file, grinder etc. These must be specifically for SS and not just anything that you have laying around or that has been previously used on CS due to carbon pick up. If you use the latter, your SS will not be 'stainless' for very long.
In short, TIG is the better and more versatile process for most SS applications but I wouldn't recommend trying it as it takes years to master (as does stick) and will look a mess if you don't get it right.
 
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jfkal said:
Certainly not stuff your life depends on such as chain plates :-)
Click to expand...

Why not?
I've welded a bracket holding the windvane, I've made horn cleats from 8 or 10mm rod, put on fittings for the temporary bowsprit, (some of which was commercial padeyes, just cut off some of the flat plate), and made a ladder from 20mm SS angle, etc. All for a steel boat.

I find SS easy to arc weld on an ordinary $100 cheap machine, as the SS is clean - there's no paint to grind off first. I got some rods, 913L maybe, that will adequately do between SS and mild steel (i.e. joins) but I use it for all my SS stuff.
Cheap $100 arc welder, makes up to 140Amp? and voltage from 19 to 22V, but the only adjustment is the amperage, which depends on the thickness of the rods. And a cheap $70 automatic helmet/visor.
The arc welding makes the slag covering, so the chipping hammer, wire brush and angle grinder with flapper/sander disc handles all that. It's cheaper than hiring gas cylinders for only small jobs.
 
DC or AC

Many thanks. Are you using DC or AC then?




barnaclephill said:
Why not?
I've welded a bracket holding the windvane, I've made horn cleats from 8 or 10mm rod, put on fittings for the temporary bowsprit, (some of which was commercial padeyes, just cut off some of the flat plate), and made a ladder from 20mm SS angle, etc. All for a steel boat.

I find SS easy to arc weld on an ordinary $100 cheap machine, as the SS is clean - there's no paint to grind off first. I got some rods, 913L maybe, that will adequately do between SS and mild steel (i.e. joins) but I use it for all my SS stuff.
Cheap $100 arc welder, makes up to 140Amp? and voltage from 19 to 22V, but the only adjustment is the amperage, which depends on the thickness of the rods. And a cheap $70 automatic helmet/visor.
The arc welding makes the slag covering, so the chipping hammer, wire brush and angle grinder with flapper/sander disc handles all that. It's cheaper than hiring gas cylinders for only small jobs.
Click to expand...
 
jfkal said:
Are you using DC or AC then?
Click to expand...

240volts a.c. input household supply, and the welder is heavy, has lots of copper coils inside, and produces what it produces, but I'm sure it's DC at about 20V and 100 to 140 amps.

I've read, though not tried, that in an emergency, you can weld on-board with 2 car batteries. The 4WD people had it in an article once.
 
AC/DC

Thanks. That's what I meant, DC on the welding side of things. Thought about the car battery as I did some accidental "welding" with one in the past. Took my hand 2 months to heal :-( .

barnaclephill said:
240volts a.c. input household supply, and the welder is heavy, has lots of copper coils inside, and produces what it produces, but I'm sure it's DC at about 20V and 100 to 140 amps.

I've read, though not tried, that in an emergency, you can weld on-board with 2 car batteries. The 4WD people had it in an article once.
Click to expand...
 
Any old stick welder will do get some scrap stainless
some rods and start practising!
But as said always put on safety glasses when knocking off the slag!
 
jfkal said:
Anyone experience with SS welding?
I would like to do small jobs myself and am totally confused by the "expert" sales guys.

Questions:

Can I use a simple arc welder (with the right sticks) to weld SS?
Click to expand...
Yes - providing you can get current control low enough. Thick s/s is straightforward enough, but if you want to weld thin stuff (i.e. < 3mm), use 2mm rods in the flat position, with a copper or brass backing plate if that's possible.
You should be able to get down to 2mm or even 1.5mm with practice, although you may need to resort to 'blob' welding, as trying to maintain a weld-pool in thin stuff is near impossible.
One trick I use when welding thin tubing is to insert some thick tube (e.g. s/s water-pipe) inside the thin. Then weld a bead onto the thick pipe, and gradually weave the electrode over the edge of the thin pipe, encouraging it to join the weld-pool. Then run a finish bead over the join, and flap-disk it smooth - and no-one's any the wiser. (it weights a tad more, that's all !)

Can I use a TIG welder also in ARC mode in order not to always mess with the gas bottles unless the job calls for TIG (alu I guess?!).
Click to expand...
Yes - in fact my favourite welder is a Messer-Greisheim 'handbag' inverter which I mainly use with the TIG switch 'off'. Suggest you run it 'electrode positive', which causes the electrons to flow from the workpiece to the rod - which results in the workpiece staying that little bit cooler, which helps to avoid thermal build-up which of course contributes to burn-through.

BTW - I've heard of people using a second electrode pretty-much as you would a TIG filler rod, to 'soak-up' the weld-pool when working with thin material. Never done this myself - but it might be worth looking into.
 
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i'm a welder by trade although no longer in that line of work, i've done a lot of stainless welding with all 3 main types of welding plant.

MMA (stick) welds stainless very well down to 2mm you can use a cheap diy ac set, the ark is not as stable as a professional set but more than good enough for a diy job. you can pick up cheap inverter sets which are dc this is easier to weld with. You can also buy cheap scratch start TIG sets for these which are quite good and a cheap way to tig weld.

TIG or TAGS welding takes a long time to learn but when mastered produces a beautiful weld on thinner material, If you want to weld Ali you need a AC TIG plant or a MIG. Argon is the normal shielding gas for TIG welding

MIG or MAGS is not so neat at welding stainless and unless you use a professional plant is not great at all, it also wears the rollers and torch liner quickly.

TIG and MIG is best sutied for workshop use because of the shielding gas you don't need much of a breeze to blow it away. Personally i would go for a MMA inverter set and if you get on well you could always add a TIG torch and have a play, I'm sure there will be lots of YouTube videos for some tips
 
the guys at work use tig on stainless, more controllable with gas but the welders are more expensive, been very close to buying one myself, £500 for a good entry level welder, wouldnt bother looking at the cheaper ones
 
How many of you welders have tried welding using 3 car batteries?
Ok in an emergency or if no 240v nearby
produces surprisingly good welds!
 
Great. Thanks a ton.

THX
alexrunic said:
i'm a welder by trade although no longer in that line of work, i've done a lot of stainless welding with all 3 main types of welding plant.

MMA (stick) welds stainless very well down to 2mm you can use a cheap diy ac set, the ark is not as stable as a professional set but more than good enough for a diy job. you can pick up cheap inverter sets which are dc this is easier to weld with. You can also buy cheap scratch start TIG sets for these which are quite good and a cheap way to tig weld.

TIG or TAGS welding takes a long time to learn but when mastered produces a beautiful weld on thinner material, If you want to weld Ali you need a AC TIG plant or a MIG. Argon is the normal shielding gas for TIG welding

MIG or MAGS is not so neat at welding stainless and unless you use a professional plant is not great at all, it also wears the rollers and torch liner quickly.

TIG and MIG is best sutied for workshop use because of the shielding gas you don't need much of a breeze to blow it away. Personally i would go for a MMA inverter set and if you get on well you could always add a TIG torch and have a play, I'm sure there will be lots of YouTube videos for some tips
Click to expand...
 
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