I'm a newbie to welding but would like to get going with it lol. My question is, Is there a shield gas that can be used for mild steel stainless steel and alu!
You can use argon for all if you really wanted to, but its far from the ideal.
Argosheild light or coogar 5 are okay for steel and general stainless, but not ally.
If you dont see yourself doing much ally, perhaps a big cylinder of the above, and use disposables for the pure argon?
Thank you for all your input. I will be mainly using mild and stainless steel. I have already figured that i will need a mini disposable bottle of pure argo. But at the moment i and really learning and the disposable mini bottles are becoming very expensive, as we all know then last ten mins! I would just like your input on what is the best all round mild and stainless steel shielding gas is! Ultimatly im looking to make a custom exhaust system for my motorbike.
I would go down the route of a 5% mixture, like i said earlier.
If you use argon for stainless or mild, you end up with quide a high bead, and not the 'wettest' weld pool.
There are lots of thread about suppliers, and a sticky topic in the gas section.
Sometimes ally is best left to be TIG welded anyway.
What he is talking about is tri-mix that goes by the name of Argoshield and other names. It is 93% argon, 5% CO2 and 2% O2.
The O2 is about 8x ax effective for adding heat as CO2; so it is equivalent to 80/20 Ar/CO2 mix. 75%/25% is standard MIG gas here (tri-mix is very uncommon in the US.)
Quite right Shenion, i was going to mention that the other is made up from oxy and Co2, dut decided it probably wasnt necessary, with giving tradenames and all. I sometime forget that i am often answering questions for people that don't have a basic knowledge of it.
NP Hitch, 5% here is common but it is 95%/5% Ar/CO2 and is used for spray-transfer welds and pulse MIGs (8% also.) It can be used for SS though (although I see many use Ar/O2 mixes for SS.). Just don't want to confuse people in areas that tri-mix is not common.
Jateu, look at the gas supplier threads posted earlier. Then use what they recommend. For DIY use, it will be the best.
Really, it won't make a big difference. The Tri-mix will do steel and SS (not ideal for SS, but works.) Only in production is the gas mixed specific to a particular process. For example, tri-mix would work, but regular 75/25 is used here as it is more economical.
For DIY use, the cost of the gas is not a big deal where the major cost is the rental. There are some suppliers that do not require rental
BTW, I use 75/25. I have used 95/5 for SS.
I have done aluminum MIG with pure argon. Not really worth the effort IMO. I use TIG for any aluminum work.