edge welding thin stainless

I would use low current TIG.

Keeping oxygen away from the back side of the weld is pretty much a requirement. The simplest setup for doing that is to form aluminum foil to the contour of the back of the weld, feed argon between the foil and the stainless and tape the foil to the stainless. There are a variety of commercial goodies for doing this if you want something fancier, Google on "backpurge".

Clean the stainless up to be bright and shiny and clean skin oils off with acetone.

Stainless does not conduct heat as well as mild steel or aluminum, so expect to use less current.

I don't do a lot of stainless welding, but using these steps gives me good results.

Good Luck, Bob

Low amp TIG is the ticket. Is this a butt weld or are you laying one strip on top of another? Either way I would use .020" tungsten with a gas lens, also 2% hydrogen, 98% argon is great for stainless. Also consider using copper, brass, or aluminum as heat sinks. With a gas lens, and at such low amps, you want to keep the shielding gas flow rate low, as higher flow rates while using low amps can cause arc problems.

Richard

0.040" Lanthanated tungsten. Without pulser 15-20 amps

With pulser 60 amps 1.7 PPS 20% on-time

10% background-amperage

If you can overlap the sheets by say an eight of an inch or less, I would probably use silver braze.

If I were going to weld them, I would bend the edges up with a brake and not use any rod.

Kind of depends on what you are making.

Dan