welding stainless steel

[CFRacing]

i have a bracket on my boat that broke, and it is stainless steel. i have never welded stainless steel before. i have a snap-on mig welder. is there stainless steel wire? does it need to be tig welded or is mig fine?

any other information is appreciated

thanks!

[snoeproe]

Yes, you can weld stainless with your mig, with the correct wire and shielding gas of course. You can also weld stainless with tig and stick.
My first choice for welding stainless (with the equipment I have) would be tig, then stick, then mig, in that order.

[Rocky D]

Stainless for your MIG is expensive, and then there's the gas, to boot. I would use stick, just to fix a bracket. My first choice would be TIG, too...but if you don't have it, then stick. If you were going to do a lot of stainless, then MIG would be a good choice.

[Roger]

A strong point of TIG welding is great for short welds of different metals because Argon shielding gas is used in most cases but Helium 100% or mixed with Argon can be used to get a little more heat, cleaning action.

Use a correct filler rod and your ready to weld or braze most any weldable metal. Often you can buy just a few exotic rods for small project with higher price per rod.

MIG welding stainless steel requires special mix used only for stainless and some times much large rolls of wire than you want to buy. Most welding friends will not give you a roll of stainless steel wire to try but might give or sell you a few TIG rods.

[Kevo]

I thought I had seen MIG/FLUX/Stainless wire somewhere on the net for sale...Anyone ever use it? I have a Hobart140 and love it but have no intentions of making the jump for stainless wire/gas for one little repair, in my case it is a motorcycle exhaust for a friend, not even my project...Just wondering about the fluxed stainless wire being any good for repair projects...
cheers,:D
Kevo

[usmcpop]

These folks have a flux-core SS wire.

http://us-forge.com/Products/Welding/mig.htm

And Stoody seems to have a line of "SOS" gasless flux core:

http://www.thermadynenewsroom.com/content/view/56/

[Rocky D]

I thought I had seen MIG/FLUX/Stainless wire somewhere on the net for sale...Anyone ever use it? I have a Hobart140 and love it but have no intentions of making the jump for stainless wire/gas for one little repair, in my case it is a motorcycle exhaust for a friend, not even my project...Just wondering about the fluxed stainless wire being any good for repair projects...
cheers,:D
Kevo
Depending on the severity of the repair, mild steel MIG can do the job with a heat resistant paint to keep it from rusting.

[B_C]

I thought I had seen MIG/FLUX/Stainless wire somewhere on the net for sale...Anyone ever use it? I have a Hobart140 and love it but have no intentions of making the jump for stainless wire/gas for one little repair, in my case it is a motorcycle exhaust for a friend, not even my project...Just wondering about the fluxed stainless wire being any good for repair projects...
cheers,:D
Kevo

Unless your very GOOD with your mig machine don't even start a repair job on motorcycle exhaust pipes.....You will burn through and make a terrible mess
of his pipe......Get it Tig welded by someone with experience on thin stainless tubing. (It has to be purged )

[Saltine]

I have welded stainless many times with 75/25 when it was out of plain view in non critical areas. The key is getting the surfaces very clean and purging. I can't afford keeping a bottle of tri-mix just for those rare occasions. I do tend to throw some VHT clear flame proof paint on the weld after it cools a bit when doing exhaust.