welding stainless how

[davidjohnperry]

Ive been playing around at work in my lunch break but just cant lay a beed down I can lay a fair beed on normal metal its 3 mm thick just cant get the beed I want striving for perfection had sofar a hr and abit practice on tig and another half an hr tomorrow

 

[Steve Gray]

Im not a TIG welder but if you put some pics up of your attempts so far im sure youll get some feedback

 

[BrokenBiker]

definitely need pics

 

[davidjohnperry]

Ok lads and lasses here are my awful attempts im kinda embarrassed to post it but they work in stages to my last attempt total welding time ever on tig 1hr 45

 

[gjn]

What amps are you using? What filler? What gas flow?

 

[davidjohnperry]

umm amps 38 gas flow 6-8 lps and 316 filler wire think 1.2 mm think it might be thinner

 

[gjn]

Your current is too low for 3 mm stainless, try around 80-90 amps and a very short arc length. Get the puddle started and then don't hang around.

Given that you want to limit the heat input into stainless to avoid burning out the chrome it's sometimes counter-intuitive but using a low current to do so is not the answer as it takes so long to get the puddle started that the metal gets saturated with heat and the stainless doesn't conduct it away well. It's better to use a higher current to get the puddle started quickly and then use a faster travel speed.

umm amps 38 gas flow 6-8 lps and 316 filler wire think 1.2 mm think it might be thinner

 

[davidjohnperry]

Ok thats what I was wondering after yesterday because the top tee fillet was done at 48 amps on a different welder and I found it easier to start the pool but the guy who showed me the basics
Likes low amps if I get another go next week ill try and smash one out hopefully not so embarrassing one

 

[hotrodder]

Have you found the tutorial yet? http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/tig-tutorial.htm

 

[davidjohnperry]

No mate ive just read it think ill have another go next week see if I can improve on this situation

 

[Jan]

Yes, those welds look awful. BUT ... they show much more promise than my first attempts at any kind of welding! Keep up the practice and one day soon everything will just fall into place and you'll wonder what the hell you could have been doing that was so wrong 'back then'.

Even Robin Hood missed his fair share of targets when he picked up his first longbow