Welding Stainless Steel to Mild Steel
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I have got to try and weld some stainless steel to some mild steel. I have not been welding for long and have sort of self taught myself, and seem to be doing ok so far. But i need to weld these two different metals together. What wire do people recommend that i use for this job. Its a mig welder as you probably guessed. And if there any other tips that they have that might help me to get it to be quite a strong weld.

Thanks

Not sure how to do it with mig, but you can use silver solder with an an oxy acetylene tourch, only problem is using oxy acetylene is the heat involved, on thin sheet it will bow and warp.
Shane.

I've never had a problem doing it before...

Which wire did you use Turbodave, was it the stainless or mild steel wire.

Thanks.

I would just practice, but i have not got too much metal to waste.

Try stainless wire and pure Argon gas.

Has worked for me in the past. If you can keep the gas running over the joint for several seconds after the weld.

Favour the stainless side of the joint with the weld too so it is getting a good coating of gas.

You will have to be careful with how you treat the joint once made. Safest is to paint past the heat affected zone on the stainless to about the same width again. Make sure you key the stainless well and use an acid etch primer.

Give it a go on whatever samples you have first.

Please remember how nasty argon and acid etch primers are.......

Every day is a school day ...........

How fast and how expensive ...... the same question...

Just do it with what you normally use.

I welded stainless with mild steel wire for ages until I actually spent some money on stainless wire. Just used argoshield light.

Its no different IMO with a MIG whether you use stainless or mild steel. Obviously wityh mild steel wire, its gona rust eventually.

the stainless mig wire I eventually bought was 316. Not cheap either. I had to give something like £125 for a 15kg roll ( didnt have any smaller and I needed it ASAP )
I think it will last me a while lol.

9.85 @ 145mph
202mph standing mile
speed didn't kill me, but taxation probably will

as said above, just use what you normally use on mild steel. you have to protect the mild steel for corrosion anyhow, so protect the weld wilst you protect the mild steel.
no probs.

Thanks for the advice. Done as suggested, same as usual and it seems all is well. As mentioned i will just protect the weld as well as the mild steel.