BoostedAudi

And I've never TIG'ed... When you say "1 wire thickness" what is the approximate diameter of the wire?

BTW, I'm buying a cylinder of straight Argon tomorrow, and would like to see if I can find MIG wire for the project. What would you suggest using for all the 304 I have to weld? (Same wire for the schedule 10 as the 16 ga, right? )

My MIG is a Hobart Handler 135. For steel, I generally use E70S-6 .030" with a .035" tip.

The mangled finger in the pic was posted accidentally. -It's a good example of how NOT to use an industrial resaw

Toysrme

Hard to penitrate if it's butted together.
Can't tell ya what'd work for you, but there's two quick easy choices.
I'd continue to grind the bevel angle down until the landing was 3/32" & use a root gap of between 1/32-1/16.
Start the arc with the wire one one side of the bevel, 1/2 way up the bevel. As soon as a puddle starts to form, move onto the gap and dance the center of the arc from one gap side to the other. That should give you a keyhole & hence, full penitration + backside reinforcement! Yay!
You can try to do it with the stock beveling & landing, need a root gap of 3/32".
Whatever you're comfortable with.

General wire is .035, 1/32 = 0.03125. It's a quick way to find nearly 1/32".

Use a .30 tip for the wire ya got. It's killing you - dog dicks city!

100% Argon you may not like the arc stability and the way the puddle doddles around at all!
The best would be a tri-mix (90% helium 7.5 argon 2.5 co2) for low amp short circuit. No corrosion resistance, very small HAZ, you have to TRY to get undercutting, no distortion. Only if you're rich.
Next to best would be Argon with 5-10% co2 & 1-3% o2. Def cheapest and the most widely avalible.
If you want to single-pass everything buy you some 98ar-2o%

You need to consider that only a helium tri-mix is going to let you multi-pass a weld 100%. Corrosion resistance is going to go to hell with the tons of oxygen present in the argon mixtures.


When you go, tell them you want to mig weld some 1/16-1/8" thick stainess in short-circuit. Ask them what they would recommend to you.



Well, I would buy ER309L wire if you're going for an MS flange. That's what you would typically use for that, and welding the 304L base pipes to each other the only real change will be the bead has X% more corrosion resistance. AFA diameter, whatever you want.





Work on those starts & stops bud! Definate dog dick-age going on there LoL! Bevel some plate how I said above, make some 1/2" long tacks & weld 1.5" of the way down your joint. (an inch and a half) Show the front & backside.

Walter

i MIG weld alot, ill go with 0.8mm

i wanna TIG weld soon

Toysrme

na man keep rocking the mig and churn your ---- out in 1/10th the time

t_cel_t

ohh, might not wanna let the guys see this :P

Toysrme

idk aside from the puke color it's cool LoL if his welding was half as good as his fiber work LoL!!!

btw having an unlocked photobucket on this site live & learn LoL!

zero5672

Mild steel to SS(304,316,321,ect), use ER309L or ER309LSi, or ER310 (not as common)

Stainless to stainless:
304 to 304, use ER308L
304 to 316, use ER316L
321 to 321, use ER347L (for applications seeing 800+degrees(f), other wise, a 308 or 316 will work)
321 to 316, or 308, use ER347

See a pattern? You always go up to a higher number in the filler metal class when joining dissimilar grades of stainless (ie: 304 to 316, you would use a ER316L rod)

<--Lowlyoilburner posting

Toysrme

Well, yes, but not entirely.
Dont use high silicon filler (Si) for what we're doing. The silicon will make it easier to weld, which we dont need. (Floats impurities, lowers the melting temp of the filler, gives a wetter more fluid puddle) The downside to the additional silicon is higher than normal crack-sensitivity. (What we're trying to eliminate)
Best time to use silicon blends is when youre having to use 1-2% oxygen blends to improve the puddle wetness.

Use 310 on 310. 310 welds 302, 310 & 314 to MS pretty good.

I think you're thinking of:
312 has extra nickel in it. It's REALLY good at dissimilar metals. VERY resistant to fissures & cracking. It has alot of iron in it, yet is still a full austenitic weld.

Don't use 316 to go joining mild steel to 316. 316 will rapidly corrode when exposed to the ferrite structures in the base metal & chrome/moly ratio of less than 8.2:1. The weld will wind up brittle. Use 309L if you want to weld 316->MS

For 321 use 321 or 347. (316 plays best with moly, no moly in 321 or 347)
321 to 316 use 347.