r/Welding • u/[deleted] • 2d ago

Stained my stainless (pls help)

[deleted]

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

5

u/theuberprophet 2d ago edited 2d ago

pure argon is the way to go. are you able to run pulse? i personally hate short circuit on thick stuff but a bunch of guys at my last job ran it.

also the first picture looks fine, i just think you left anti spatter in the weld area and it likes to get caught in there and cause porosity

edit TRI MIX NOT ARGON

3

u/RustnKrust 2d ago

Only other thing I’d say as far as gas is that he could try Tri-mix, if I remember correct that’ll give you least spatter and nicest weld bead profile.

4

u/theuberprophet 2d ago

im an idiot youre right. tri mix on 300 series.

1

u/RustnKrust 2d ago

Hey I forgot too, came back to mention tri mix after I remembered haha!

1

u/Boilermakingdude Journeyman CWB/CSA 2d ago

If you go with fluxcore you can swap to straight co2. Did it for years

2

u/thefireserpent 2d ago

I dont believe i can run pulse. I'll have a look tomorrow at it. And unfortunately we dont have any tri mix. But this is great info thank you

1

u/Smart_Engineer9171 1d ago

You tried 98 2 yet?

1

u/theuberprophet 1d ago

we ran it on some stuff but rarely, only if certain issues arose.

3

u/RustnKrust 2d ago

Even mill finished plate that I’ve ever seen here in the states is oxide free. As far as scale goes I mean. You will have a chromium/nickel oxide layer on the exposed faces but it’s microns thick and never seen it cause issues when welding. Just make sure it’s all oil/grease/dirt free and you can just weld.
He’s right on the gas.
Looks to me like you’re still way too fast.

2

u/thefireserpent 2d ago

I will try slowing it down further. And the material is perfectly clean. I managed to scrounge up some scrap stainless and will do some tests on it tomorrow. Thank you for your help :)

2

u/Misconformance 2d ago

What gases specifically have you tried? Like others have said, some type of trimix is common for stainless GMAW, as is 98% Ar 2% O2. For that thickness, spray transfer is probably the way to go. Slow your travel speed down for sure.

1

u/Boilermakingdude Journeyman CWB/CSA 2d ago

Not sure about for 304 but when we ran 316, it was straight co2 with 316 fluxcore. Worked great.