Welding Stainless Steel Exhaust

Its definitely not a good idea.

Welding stainless steel exhaust.

We had 98 2 mixture 985argon 2 oxygen i was a tig repair welder i used 3 32 filler wire you do not alot of heat for this metal. Andy phillips shows how to weld exhaust pipe and the tools needed to prep the metal and weld it together. The widely used stainless steel is the type 304 stainless steel as they are also referred to as surgical stainless steel as it contains a maximum of 20 of chromium and 10 of nickel. Stainless steel exhaust i worked at delphi auto systems we used 409stainless for our converters.

For thicker base pieces step up to 035 inch to 045 inch welding wire. Work done on a chevy s10 pickup truck. Most of the popular welding processes can be used but i prefer gmaw because it works well on custom exhaust systems for my high school students hot rods. For most jobs welding stainless steel you ll want to use 030 inch diameter stainless steel welding wire.

For mig welding stainless steel a shielding gas mixture that s 90 percent helium 7 5 percent argon and 2 5 percent carbon dioxide is generally ideal. Stainless exhaust is sometimes made from 304 stainless but there are also quite a few exhaust components that use 400 series stainless like 409. Either way to get the best service and longest life out of a. Ferritic stainless steel is the cheapest form of steel and hence it is favored for manufacturing automotive exhaust components.

The answer to your first question is yes you can mig weld thin gauge stainless steel in a short circuit mode with compact type 120v or 230v input power mig welders see example in figure 1 the machine would have the same amperage and resulting material thickness capability with stainless steel as it does with carbon steel.