Which of the 3 common shield gasses is best for MIG welding stainless steel ? I have on hand argon and CO2 , no C25 at this time but i can get it if I need it .
- posted
3 years ago
Which of the 3 common shield gasses is best for MIG welding stainless steel ? I have on hand argon and CO2 , no C25 at this time but i can get it if I need it .
Solid wire stainless MIG - definitely not CO2, no Ar/CO2. The gas needs to be inert. OK - s'less MIG often uses Ar with
1%oxygen to make the arc more fierce and make the weld-pool more fluid. Just 1%O2 so don't lose significant amounts of alloying additions.Problem with pure Ar and MIG is it's so not penetrative. It's easy to put a bottle of TIG gas (100%Ar) onto a MIG machine with stainless wire and find out how not penetrating it is. It's an experience.
Only stainless MIG I've ever done was with an Ar/He/something-else gas, and it worked well. Shocked them with neat little "spray" (transfer) fillet beads.
Look for more advice, hopefully appearing on this thread.
Rich S
I've used Argoshield light for MIG welding stainless 304 and it worked well although I can't compare as the only other gas I have is argon and BOC list Argoshield light as OK for stainless in non critical applications so went with that
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