Noob Welding Stainless to Mild?
 

Well I'm still new to this welding thing, been messing with welding mild steel and haven't messing with stainless at all....The reason I ask is because my BOV flange is welded to a peice of T-304 Stainless steel and I am using Aluminized Mild steel for my charge piping...I am using a Hobart Handler 180 Mig with a 70/30 gas mix and I think its .30 steel wire...can't remember off the top of my head...I know for mild steel I was setting in some where between 25-30...What i have been reading is stainless is a little more resistant to heat...soooo pretty much my question is am i going to have trouble welding my SS flange to my aluminized mild steel piping and is there any trick or methods i should use, thanks...Matt

Re: Noob Welding Stainless to Mild?
 

Normally Stainless is welded at a lower temp.
Be sure to wire brush, grind, or buff the Aluminized Steel beforeyou weld it, to get the Aluminized Coating off of it
Run MS Wire. 030 is fine.
As for the setting, every welder is different, so I don't know what 25-30 is, For something like that on my Hobart IronMan 250 I would be at Voltage 2 or 3 depending on the flange, and Wire speed about 45.

Re: Noob Welding Stainless to Mild?
 

Cool, thanks...I always hit the bench grinder and wire wheel before i weld stuff...my major concern was weld different metals together so i shouldn't have problem...I have 2 knobs on my welder one is wire speed which I usually leave at the lowest speed since i think its fast already but i'm still getting used to it and my speed and control...oh and on a sidenot I have my JK traction bar sitting here can't wait to put it on :y

Re: Noob Welding Stainless to Mild?
 

Great. Don't fear the 2 meatl things. Think about your SS Manifold and Mild Steel flanges.

Re: Noob Welding Stainless to Mild?
 

When welding SS to MS you should use SS wire.

Re: Noob Welding Stainless to Mild?
 

Is thatto keep from contaiminating the SS or other reasons? I should use SS wire but I can use MS?

Re: Noob Welding Stainless to Mild?
 

you are far beter off to TIG weld it, and if you mig it with either wire it will crack!
you can buy specific wire for mild to ss
but will probly still crack

tig weld it with ams, 5680 tig rod and it will be strong

Re: Noob Welding Stainless to Mild?
 

Well i don't have a tig so I only can use mig but Its only for my BOV flange I'll just mig it with what I have and maybe put some JB weld over top ;)

Re: Noob Welding Stainless to Mild?
 

The "proper" thing to weld it with is 309 stainless wire. However, if you already have 316 or 308, it will work fine for this application. Clean both parts prior to welding them (grinding or sanding to clean metal is fine), and you shouldn't have any cracking problems. C25 gas will do fine also.

There's nothing so bad about mig welding ss to cs. I've done it many, many times, had tension pulls, xrays, bends, and other tests done on the welds...without problems. I don't know why the poster above says it will crack. Maybe there was something wrong with his setup that caused cracking. I dunno. Maybe his parts were cast or something, which is more prone to cracking.

Re: Noob Welding Stainless to Mild?
 

Yea everyone else who posted and the research I've done makes me feel confident enough that it will be fine, no more owrries for me and if for some chance it cracks I'll just re weld it...I'll make sure my prep grinding/ sanding and cleaning are really good and everything should be fine, thanks for all the replys