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Steel is basically Iron and Carbon with small amounts of other stuff like manganese. Low Carbon Steel has .3 percent carbon. Not 3 percent but 0.3 percent or point 3 percent. Thats not much. For comparison sake, Cast iron has a full 3 percent and sometimes more. Thats why cast iron is such a pain to weld and also why low carbon steel is the easiest metal to weld low carbon steel is also the cheapest metal to buy. Low Carbon Steel is what we use to learn to weld and low Carbon steel is what we compare all other metals to when we study metals. Why? Well its easier to understand stuff if we can compare it to something we already know and understand. How you gonna weld anything else if you haven't learned welding steel?
7018. They both run on a/c or dc reverse so a 225 amp Lincoln buzz box from home depot is all you really need for a whole lot of hobby welding. 6011 penetrates deeper and can weld downhill. 7018 will look better but they suck for downhill. A 7018 bead done by a good welder looks good and is ductile and strong.
Tig welding is used extensively for pipe welding, aerospace, aviation, biomedical implants, fabrication of race cars, choppers, etc. It is much more precise and cleaner than mig welding or stick welding and definitely the coolest. Carbon steel and other metals as thin as razor blades can be welded. Outdoor windy conditions matter a lot and portable wind shields are a must if welding outside. Most tig welding is done in shops and indoors. It is one of the most versatile types of welding there is because virtually any type of metal can be welded with a few exceptions like certain alloys of aluminum that are considered unweldable (ie 7075 aluminum). Sometimes all that is needed is to pick up a different rod. Even when switching from steel to aluminum, all that is needed is a different rod and a few different settings on the tig welding machine. Just change polarity to ac, swap the high frequency to continuous and you are good to go. Make sure not to try to tig weld with rods made for gas welding. They look a lot alike but the difference is tig rods have silicon and the gas rods dont have squat. Gas welding rods will give you porosity and just plain take the fun out of tig welding
millions of toys with lead based paint. How much incentive does the guy in charge of carbon content have to get it right? and who is checking it? That said it is good practice to not speed cool any steel. At least not until it gets below around 500 degrees f. leave welding steel and return to home page
Before we get too deep into welding stainless steel, if you read my web page on Welding Steel , you may remember that plain carbon steel is basically Iron and Carbon with small amounts of other stuff like manganese. Low Carbon Steel has .3 percent carbon. Not 3 percent but 0.3 percent or point 3 percent. Thats not much. For comparison sake, Cast iron has a full 3 percent and sometimes more. Thats why cast iron is such a pain to weld and also why low carbon steel is the easiest metal to weld low carbon steel is also the cheapest metal to buy. Low Carbon Steel is what we use to learn to weld and low Carbon steel is what we compare all other metals to when we study metals. Why? Well its easier to understand stuff if we can compare it to something we already know and understand. Well now its time to compare something else to carbon steel. Lets compare stainless steel. Stainless steel comes in several different varieties. Most welding noobs are not aware of this fact. The stainless properties of stainless steels are primarily due to the presence of chromium in quantities greater than roughly 12 weight percent. stainless steels contain some combination of iron, chromium, and nickel as the main elements. Most stainless steels are mostly iron. If your are familiar with the term 18-8 stainless that was widely used in the advertisement of stainless steel cookware, the 188 signifies 18 percent chromium and 8 percent nickel with the remainder iron. One thing I have to mention about welding stainless steel is that the back side of the weld needs argon shielding just as much as the front. The photo of the aircraft engine stator being prepared for welding displays special tooling made for the purpose of shielding the back side of the weld. If the penetration side is not shielded with argon, it will "sugar" which is a slang word for oxidize. Granulation is another descriptive term that accurately describes what happens. A closeup photo of the granulated or sugared stainless steel weld reveals why sugared welds fail in service. There are deep pits and crevices that are bound to develop into cracks.
TIG welding, also called heliarc welding, also called GTAW, (gas tungsten arc welding) Stick welding, also called arc welding, and also called SMAW, (shielded metal arc welding) Mig welding, also called, wire welding, also called GMAW, (gas metal arc welding) I am old school. I just call them Stick, Mig, and TIG. Stick welding stainless steel is easy on the bench and in the flat position. But for out of position welds, it can be a pain in the butt. The worst scars I ever got on my arms came from stainless stick rod. It was a welding test and I was determined to pass. I just didnt want to stop and make another tie in. Oh well, like the old man said: if youre going to be dumb you had better be tough. In the hands of a real stick welder, stick welding can produce some high quality stainless steel welds. Mig welding stainless steels is used for fabrication, manufacturing, kitchen equipment. It is not as portable as stick welding and unless you are using flux cored self shielded wire, windy conditions matter a lot. Changing from carbon steel to welding stainless steel is much more complicated than with stick welding because it usually involves changing shielding gas as well as the spool of wire. The good thing about mig is that it is quick and there is no slag to clean. It lends itself well for fabrication because of this and because it allows tack welding with one hand so the other hand is free to help position the parts to be tack welded. There are a couple of different choices for shielding gas if you need to weld stainless steel with MIG. On is called tri mix and is 90 helium 7.5 argon and 2.5 c02.The other is 98 percent argon and 2 percent oxygen. It really depends on what thickness and what position you will be welding in. TIG welding is used extensively for pipe welding, aerospace, aviation, biomedical implants, fabrication of race cars, choppers, etc. It is much more precise and cleaner than mig welding or stick welding and definitely the coolest. Carbon steel and other metals as thin as razor blades can be welded. Outdoor windy conditions matter a lot and portable wind shields are a must if welding outside. Most TIG welding is done in shops and indoors. It is one of the most versatile types of welding there is because virtually any type of metal can be welded with a few exceptions. A few tips for welding stainless steel Always use a stainless steel wire brushthere is a certain temperature where stainless steel heat tint will brush off easily and completely. You can tell when the metal is at that sweet spot by running the wire brush over the weld at an angle. When you feel the wire bristles kind of drag over the weld like they are digging in a bit. That is when you wire brush the weld. You will be surprised at how much shinier that weld area is than waiting for the weld to cool
completely or brushing when its too hot. Try it sometime.TIG Welding stainless steel to any other steel? Thats a broad statement but here is the tip: Use Hastelloy W TIG rod. It is used in aerospace to weld practically any stainless steel to any other steel. So when in doubt, whip the Hastelloy W out.Now I will go ahead and issue the disclaimer: for critical applications consult an engineer..whatever