Stainless set up. Mild steel use

[Bradley fish]

Hello all
I am thinking about buying stainless wire and argon gas for my MIG.
However I do occasionally weld mild steel.

So my question is would I still get a fairly decent weld on mild whilst using a stainless set up.

Thanks

 

[backpurge]

You can't MIG weld steel or stainless steel with argon

 

[Bradley fish]

Well that's out the window then. What gas would you recoment for stainless and occasional mild welding.

 

[backpurge]

If you are going to be mainly welding stainless and also doing a bit of thin gauge mild steel you want to go for argon+2.5% CO2, if you are going to be doing heavier section mild steel you need to be looking at either a 5% or even 12% CO2 mix

 

[outofthefire]

I was told you need to use Argon to mig weld stainless, if you use an argon mix the weld will tarnish.

 

[backpurge]

I was told you need to use Argon to mig weld stainless, if you use an argon mix the weld will tarnish.

You've been given the wrong info fella

 

[BrokenBiker]

i have used 5% co2 on stainless and it ran ok but it wasn't a huge job so didn't really have time to test it out properly. Works well for the mild steel i weld though, usually 2.5mm wall box section/tube or 3mm angle iron

 

[backpurge]

Depends what you want to achieve at the end of the day, if it's a case of sticking something together Argoshield Light type mixtures are probably OK but if you are looking to produce commercially acceptable welds in terms of weld quality, corrosion resistance and economic viability you would not use a gas mix that contained oxygen and such a high CO2 content, as I said it all depends what you are producing and it's end use

 

[HMB]

Just an addition to this thread. If I wanted to mig 2mm stainless 316. Could I get away with 50/50 He Ar mix?

 

[TechnicAl]

We should have a "sticky" at the top of this page............"Gas for Stainless" or something.
This question must be the most common on the site (and the most misunderstood)

 

[chunkolini]

It does come up over and over again.
Perhaps a sticky with a consensus on what gas for what job.

 

[backpurge]

Just an addition to this thread. If I wanted to mig 2mm stainless 316. Could I get away with 50/50 He Ar mix?

Not really suitable, for stainless you need argon or argon/helium mix with an addition of 2.5%CO2

 

[HMB]

Cool. Sticky would be a good idea