Stick welding stainless. ?'s

[YoungPUP]

The father in law has asked that I weld together new dock leg feet for him.  Only problem is I've never welded stainless before.  I like simple and as such I've got my Grandfathers old Lincoln Ac225 stick box.  Any tips etc?  The feet are 1/4" stainless plate and the pipe connection points are 2" stainless slugs that are 8" long.  Thanks in advance as always.

[BF]

I am NOT a welder, but I do work with several and I could be horribly wrong about this, but I thought you shouldn't stick weld stainless.  Tig weld yes (maybe even Mig on thinner stuff), stick weld not so much. 

[Patrick]

Do you know what kind of stainless. Some can be welded with a buzz box, such as 304 [and I think 308] with 308L rod. It doesn't penetrate well though. I think the largest rod is 5/32" which should run fairly well in the 120-150 amp range.
Have you looked for a Lincoln website ? They may have some info on this.

[gregc]

  Try this site, should tell you what you are looking for.

http://www.airgas.com/browse/product_list.aspx?catID=122&WT.svl=122

[Gryphon]

I've welded 1/4 plate with a special green rod.  It was many years ago and I can't remember all of the details.  I discovered that you have to move slow and have a very light touch. My hobby of calligraphy and fountain pens came in handy.

[NCGhostrider]

I have "stick welded" some stainless over the years.  There are two things that caught my eye on the posted question.   First was what grade/type of stainless was being welded, and second, the type of welder that was being used.  TIG is preferred, but if you think about what is usually being "TIGGED," you will find they are thin products, which of course benefit from the greater bead control etc. 

I have also discovered that many things that people portray as stainless are not.  The same is true for "cast iron" vs. cast steel.   I have seen many customers bring and item in that they knew was cast iron and request specialty rods.  More often than not, a cast product on a piece of machinery is cast steel.   Cast steel in many cases is weldable by 7018 with a little preheat and controlled cool down..    But that's another story..

If you have any experience welding, you will discover that the stainless rods are kind of "muddy" when you are running them.  Be prepared to not be sure of your bead until you are done with a pass, and then use that knowledge to understand what to expect while running them. 

These are not 6011 rods.   

Also, verify that the rods you obtain.  You need to verify their compatibility with the product being welded and that they are AC machine compatible...since it sounds like you are using an AC only cracker box. 

The correct rods probably will have "-16" at the end of their rod type designation.  They will be ac/dc compatible. 


I am including a link that I checked to verify what I could remember. 

I hear these types of questions very often, mostly concerning aluminum and other specialty metals. 

I recently bought a welding supply store, and have quit welding for the most part, but now I get to share what I know and still make money sometimes!

Here is a link.... 
http://www.gobookee.net/ss-gas-welding-rod-chart/

Look for the section on stainless.

There will be other places to read about this also. 

Do some reading.  You will do fine.   BTW, when you get a "pass" around the product being welded, stop and listen and see if you hear the "tink" of a crack in your weld.  Then go figure out what you did wrong!! 

Have fun!

Craig
NcGhostrider
99 I/S

[FryeVRCCDS0067]

I've burned a lot of SS rod over the years but not much in the past 5 or 10 years. From an industrial maintenance standpoint, I've found that SS rod is pretty easy to work with and pretty easy to get a good looking weld with. But, I've had no experience with using it overhead or vertical. I've known maintenance guys who would use SS rod for most welding since you can weld non SS with it too, and as I said it looks good. I've never checked alloy types first, I've just used the stainless rod we had in the shop. If your welding aircraft parts, motorcycle parts, firearms parts or other critical parts then I'd take it to a pro. At least for advice if nothing else.

If it's not that critical then I'd just make sure your using SS rod made for AC welding (I'm assuming that's not an AC/DC buzz box) set your amperage within the range recommended on the box of rods and try it first in a hidden spot if possible so you can see how it will work and fine tune your amperage setting.

If it's some kind of SS that can't be welded I'd think it would be apparent but that's not a scenario I've ran into before so my experience runs out there. I used to occasionally hard-face large 200lb paddles used in the lead industry with hard-facing rod to extend the paddles service life. If we didn't have or couldn't get hard-facing rod then I'd use SS rod. Never a problem with using SS rod on plain metal.

[YoungPUP]

The plate is 308 ( I cut up the tank that was made out of it) as for the slugs, Who knows.  As for the welder it IS just an AC unit. Thanks for all the links.  Got some reading to do.  Thankfully from a learning standpoint this project is nothing special and since it'll be put underwater when finished it'll never be seen again.