HomemadeTurbo - DIY Turbo Forum - are black steel weld els the same as mild steel

Thats weird, I live in WI too so they should use the same supplier. Actually all of the 'northern planes' region of HD's should for that matter. I took two 2" elbows, ground down the metal so I was at fresh stuff, then MIG'd away at the full 135ish amps my 120v Lincoln could throw at it. Maybe you used too much heat, since mild steel conducts heat 2x as fast as stainless.

The reason I never bothered with butt el's in mild is that from Mcmaster they are like $5 per elbow vs $7 for stainless. I also planned on having my HF toaster box set to weld stainless by now, but whatever. A few thousand miles and both the pipe and elbows are holding. BTW My up-pipe is pretty bad, I basicly chopped it in half and added a different patch section when I changed the WG location.