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Welding thin stainless 14 gauge sheet or thinner

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 7:07 am
by Bonanza
I have been practising at home in my own time getting better with stainless steel welds and are trying to get as good as possible with thin stainless sheet metals and going through all the different types of joins and metal sizes and also pipe practise to learn stainless properly.

I've got a few questions on this subject and mainly what I'm wanting to figure out is the technique to getting the stainless to look as uniform as possible which is also very similar to getting the pipe welds to look better and also how often when welding lap joints and butt joints the filler is being dipped?? It is much easier to dip less with butt joints and lap joints but it takes to long so I'm wondering if with this exact size you are dipping frequently like every second or so to get it just right?

I have got a picture of a fillet joint which is looking ok I think but as you all will know this process is different again :)

any tips or advise is much appreciated. :D
Tig fillet weld 14 gauge stainless
Tig fillet weld 14 gauge stainless
IMG_0354.JPG (45.97 KiB) Viewed 949 times

Re: Welding thin stainless 14 gauge sheet or thinner

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 11:44 am
by admin
Seems like I dip about once per second on most things but when I Tig thinner stuff I dip more frequently.
Your weld looks nice so you are doing something right.
Also on stainless sometimes going to a smaller wire helps. I have been trying .045" lately for jobs where I might normally use 1/16" and it is helping.

Good luck
Jody


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Re: Welding thin stainless 14 gauge sheet or thinner

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 9:53 am
by Rick_H
Agreed that weld looks good... I do a lot of 16g I use a small .040 or .0625 tungsten, gas lens and try to get in and out as soon as possible. I also use .032"-.035" filler as it takes a fair bit less then a .0625" filler wire to melt and can give you a nice small or properly sized bead. Using a backer to help pull the heat away will help with distortion as well.

Re: Welding thin stainless 14 gauge sheet or thinner

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 4:14 pm
by Superiorwelding
Bonanza,
I also agree, that weld looks fine. I also use the one dip per second and sometimes 2 seconds, it will depend on the thickness of material and what you want your weld to look like. Keep up the good work!
-Jonathan

Re: Welding thin stainless 14 gauge sheet or thinner

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 9:08 am
by Bonanza
Thanks Jody and everyone it's much appreciated!

That is very good too know that I'm on the right track it takes the persistence along with the practise and helpful advise goes along way too.

I have got the dipping better now and done a reasonably good lap joint today so the advise is working well to get the more uniform look that they should have.

Cheers, James :)
Tig weld 14 gauge stainless
Tig weld 14 gauge stainless
IMG_0361.JPG (37.27 KiB) Viewed 817 times