I'm sure this is a dumb question, but I'm out of Argon, and can't get more for 3 weeks (nearest welding supply place is an hour away, and only open until noon on Saturdays, and I'm going to be offshore for the next 2 weeks), and I'd like to tack some pieces together. Is it possible to use fluxcore mild steel wire on SS piping without it being a total ------- mess? I know that it'll stick (I've been practicing with fluxcore on some scrap SS pipe pieces), but will there be any unforseen problems, like porosity or cracking or something?

 

when I did a downpipe for my exhaust I used a spare ss mandrel bend that had a dent in it. I used the flux core stuff and it worked ok. Just don't use the ---- wire from harbour freight, get something better from lowes. I think they even have stainless steel flux wire at tractor supply.

 

flux on stainless.

 

ahh birdshit flux FTW... until i got my smiley

 

it was birdshit because i had no way to wheel or clean the pipe at the time.

 

yea I hate how you have to stop every 1.5 inches to clean off the flux buildup just to make it look semi-nice.

 

Awesome. Just making sure that I wasn't going to ruin a bunch of hard work. I swear, fitup is 80% of the effort, and all it takes is on fuckup when welding, and its all for naught.

 

a trick to help stop the spatter is to wrap the pieces in some scrap header wrap except for about 1/2'' on each side of the welding area.

it makes cleaning the welds very easy.


as for the stainless flux, besides being hard to find, it is very expensive locally, i am sure you can find it at a decent price, however, i am sure it would cost a lot more than what regular flux does.

 

so basically if i use flux core it will look like birdshit no matter what i do gonna try fabbing up bigger exhaust with my new 70amp fluxcore/mig welder

 

use brand name flux in .035 or .042 will greatly reduce the splatter. also, there isn't many ways to stop the splatter.