Stainless Steel Mig

[JB @ C and L Machine]

Seems like I can never achieve a good weld with Stainless steel unless I'am using a Flux core wire. The latest project I used a solid core 316 wire on 316 material with a 75/25 mix.It looks real nasty. Is it me or is the flux core with 75/25 the way to go on all my Stainless projects.I did a 12 piece rotor project made up of 304SS and used 308/309( I forget off off ) with 75/25 and it turned off awesome. I do mostly thicker materials from 1/2 to 2 inches.JB

[mopar74]

Try a tri mix of heluim,co2 and argon. Any good welding supply store should have this in stock. Kevin

[littlefuzz]

Try straight Argon for SS, works out alot nicer

[lorenzo]

I run a lot of 316 dual shield with a 75/25 mix..... it runs awesome. Sometimes I have a problem with worm holing but that is about it.... I found that it is very important to only enough tension on the rollers to feed the wire. I adjust my drive rollers so that when I pinch the wire with my fingers the rollers will slip.... this also ended the problem of constantly breaking the wire. Just my 2 cents

[pulser]

Generally, over 5% CO2 is not recommended for SS. Ok, I suppose it works, but in addition to oxidizing the weld there will be excessive carbon pickup, causing the formation of chromium carbides, thereby destroying the corrosion resistance of the SS. If your application does not involve a corrosive enviroment, then maybe you don't care.
Once again, here are the AWS recommendations for MIG gas:
http://files.aws.org/wj/2006/02/wj20...j200602-46.pdf