MIG weld stainless

Hello all

I've ended up with a load of questions in my mind about MIG stainless and no answers.

So what's you views on MIG'ing stainless?

Here's the story, FWIW...

I went to a trial weld session for a job, where welding was MIG'ing stainless steel. 12Cr sheet with 308 welding wire. Gas Argon

30%Helium ~1%Oxygen. I was told what to do - machine settings - but also found the stainless different. I was left unsure what's their conditions and what's about the stainless. The MIG stainless weldpool seemed "gloopy" and far less willing to "flow-forward" and "wet" than common "black" steels. On the other hand they had me weaving to build-up and spread the weld - fillet welds. Whereas MIG'ing structural steel I "tune" the conditions to run straight, fast. With a hotter condition for the stainless which enabled me to run straight, the difference disappeared a lot.

I found the whole trial weld thing exhausting and fell asleep on the sofa promptly on getting back.

Spatter proved to be a pain they are always mitigating with antispatter spray.

Waking up in the morning, I was thinking - for this stainless, should you be following the "rules" for general structural steel welding and chase the conditions to the highest heat the weld will take without undercut and charge along straight down the joints, letting it flow in as it will? Welds are all on about 4mm / 5/32-inch. So you wouldn't be changing conditions all the time.

Sorry I've ended-up with no findings of my own to comment.

Rich

Reply to
Richard Smith
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OK - flow it out like welding mild steel, with similar heat settings - and why are they not using Flux-Cored Arc Welding?

Reply to
Richard Smith

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