sidewayz

yes I searched and no I don't want to pick up another batch of filler wire. Ace sent me the wrong elbows and I can't wait a week for replacements. I ordered 304 els and got 316 instead. Im just making an up pipe to hold a 30R onto... Is it really going to affect strength if I use 308 filler on this? My staight sections are 304 and the els are 316. Thanks guys

turbob16hatch

you will be fine.

sidewayz

yeah thats what I figured. Im not doing crazy NASA type stuff.. its just that my LWS is OUTRAGEOUS on filler pricing..

Captain Bondo

As was said, that's fine.

As a side note, the best thing to use would probably be 309L, which isn't much more money, but if you already have 308, just use it.

Passenger

They won't let you buy small quantities? How expensive are they?

Toysrme

Werd. 308 = Okay. 308 will do a good job welding any of the chrome-nickle stainless steels aslong as its 19% chromium and 9% nickle. 316's are 17% chromium, 12% nickle. For what we're doings its just fine. Just watch the puddle the first weld you make. 316 is a slight wetter under the arc than 304 is. After that you can sleep through it.

Ive never been to any welding supply place that wasn't more than happy to split their filler up down to 1lb.

turbob16hatch

hey toysrme can you explain why the 316 is so damn glassy and seems to weld like ----, it doesn't flow well and it seemed like i had to move the torch way more to get it to do what i wanted it to, compaired to 308?

maybe i got a bad batch, but i hated that stuff. never will use it again unless i absolutly need to.

Toysrme

Glassy? I cant. Ive always found it wetter and more enjoyable to weld than 304 base w308/309.
I can tell you it trades out some chromium to add nickel and some moly. Maybe you're allergic to moly

turbob16hatch

Hrm, I was using it on 304 SS so maybe that was the problem. this was for testing at my old work. The welds looked good but damn it was hard to work with.

Passenger

I never buy 308 filler, I just use 316 instead and welds very nicely on 304. Like toysrme said, it has really good wetting.