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[90turboteg]

so i tig weld aluminum and steel/cast at work all day long and its awsome, but for some reason my stainless welding on sch 10 pipe isnt the best, seems like its too hot somtimes and contaminated. im welding a manifold this weekend and would like some welder settings and tips you may have for me. thanks nogs

amprage setting? cup size have tryed 7 and 10 cups, tank pressure if that matters, how far out is your toungston, hold the cup straight up and down? .... things like that, my cast and mild steel welds turn out super baller and alum is cake. dam stainless

[onlyflash944]

make sure its clean

[90turboteg]

ya i clean the pipe with my air die grinder with a red brillow style  pad... seems to do the job. ive been trying to weld at 160 amps, about 25psi regulator on argon, 1/16th 308 ss filler rod, used size 7 and 10 cups, im using a brand new miller sw250 liquid cooled tig just have never gone to school so dont know what settings i need to make decent welds on ss...

[Hotrodlincoln]

I run my gas at bout 15psi, make sure its clean and it should weld pretty smooth. edit: 6 or 7 cupo between 50 and 80 amps

[turbob16hatch]

ya i clean the pipe with my air die grinder with a red brillow style  pad... seems to do the job. ive been trying to weld at 160 amps, about 25psi regulator on argon, 1/16th 308 ss filler rod, used size 7 and 10 cups, im using a brand new miller sw250 liquid cooled tig just have never gone to school so dont know what settings i need to make decent welds on ss...

160 amps wtf dude? thats like super fucking high.

Heres my set up for sch 10. 18-20 cfh, 80 amps,#8 cup, 1/16th 308 rod, 3/32" red tungsten

80 amps can even be a little hot on sch 10. but i do lay wire or w/e so it cool the puddle quite a bit. You need to turn the argon down as it can cause turbulence and make gas coverage worse the higher you turn it up. Also how fast/far are you moving as this will over heat the material and cuase another lack of gas coverage.

[Corey]

160 amps on sch10? how often do you blow holes in the metal? lol

i do a 90 amp root pass and a 60-62 amp cap pass. 60-62 seems to be the sweet spot once the metal gets warm. 125 amps on head flange to runner.

same as turbob16 #8 cup 1/16 308 rod 3/32 red tung. 25-28 cfh argon. i use 3/32 309L on mild steel flange to stainless welds.

[t_cel_t]

yeah for one thing way too hot, 25psi? are you sure you are using a flow meter? needs to be at max 15 cubic feet/hour.
do you have a foot petal or is the amperage set? if pedal~100 if not~75-80
i like to use 3/32 308 rod, i assume the base metal is 304L?
you probably already know if your tungsten is fucked at all you need to regrind it.
keep your tungsten as close as possible for penetration.
cup size-whatever fits in where you are welding

[turbob16hatch]

160 amps on sch10? how often do you blow holes in the metal? lol

i do a 90 amp root pass and a 60-62 amp cap pass. 60-62 seems to be the sweet spot once the metal gets warm. 125 amps on head flange to runner.

same as turbob16 #8 cup 1/16 308 rod 3/32 red tung. 25-28 cfh argon. i use 3/32 309L on mild steel flange to stainless welds.

So do you dab or lay wire?

[90turboteg]

ya 160 is what a welder at work told me, but it always looked too hot lol, and ya we run 25psi or however its measured, has a floating ball..., its a miller sw250 with a foot pedal, the medals clean, and i have size 7 and ten cups thats all here so what would be the better one to run? also do all of you go back over your welds to make them look nicer after you've added filler?

im using 1/16th 308 ss rod, 3/32 red tungsten, and i know how to sharpen them. have welding gloves specificly for ss, im a newb at stainless so this is why i ask, i make alum intake manifolds and weld cast bends to manifolds for test kits for the motors we rebuild at work, never do stainless

[turbob16hatch]

ya 160 is what a welder at work told me, but it always looked too hot lol, and ya we run 25psi or however its measured, has a floating ball..., its a miller sw250 with a foot pedal, the medals clean, and i have size 7 and ten cups thats all here so what would be the better one to run? also do all of you go back over your welds to make them look nicer after you've added filler?

im using 1/16th 308 ss rod, 3/32 red tungsten, and i know how to sharpen them. have welding gloves specificly for ss, im a newb at stainless so this is why i ask, i make alum intake manifolds and weld cast bends to manifolds for test kits for the motors we rebuild at work, never do stainless

Well the cup size is almost solely dependent on how much room you have, but a good rule of thumb is use the biggest you can comfortably.

I make a root pass with NO filler that is on the hot side to burn in(penetration). then i go back and do a second pass adding my filler. now some add filler both passes but i think this hurts penetration.

Go lay some welds and post pics.

[Corey]

160 amps on sch10? how often do you blow holes in the metal? lol

i do a 90 amp root pass and a 60-62 amp cap pass. 60-62 seems to be the sweet spot once the metal gets warm. 125 amps on head flange to runner.

same as turbob16 #8 cup 1/16 308 rod 3/32 red tung. 25-28 cfh argon. i use 3/32 309L on mild steel flange to stainless welds.

So do you dab or lay wire?

root pass is no filler

[Corey]

ya 160 is what a welder at work told me, but it always looked too hot lol, and ya we run 25psi or however its measured, has a floating ball..., its a miller sw250 with a foot pedal, the medals clean, and i have size 7 and ten cups thats all here so what would be the better one to run? also do all of you go back over your welds to make them look nicer after you've added filler?

im using 1/16th 308 ss rod, 3/32 red tungsten, and i know how to sharpen them. have welding gloves specificly for ss, im a newb at stainless so this is why i ask, i make alum intake manifolds and weld cast bends to manifolds for test kits for the motors we rebuild at work, never do stainless

if you can weld alum good, stainless should be no prob.

i never go back over welds, its a waste of time unless your welds looks like total shit.

personally i like to use low amps when welding so you can move the puddle slower and not over heat the metal. then you can take the time to keep your bead uniform.

[weirtech]

you should also consider getting a gas lense if you don't already have one.  it helps immensely with gas coverage.  i hold the torch as perpendicular as i can usually.  i use a #12 cup and have the 3/32" tungsten out about a 1/4".  i'll pull it out up to 3/4" to reach tighter spots, or just put a #8 cup on, or a smaller gas lense with my long #6 cup for places like where the collector meets on the back side.  amps are same as already mentioned.

[90turboteg]

Thanks for all the info nogs, turning the heat down helped alot, my welds are still far from perfect but i still have to keep a steadyer hand. i was using a #7 cup with the tungsten 1/4" out depending on where im welding, its just a shorty i made for a friend with a 2 day deadline while working my regular job 12hrs a day lol.

his cast manifold didnt fit so i offered to make him one so i could get some practice before i make a topmount for my integra and friends vitara setup. deff learned alot of good info from you guys, now im gona try out my friends 09  sw250dx when he gets home to finish the t3 flange. ill post pics but its not super pretty, just remeber this was the FIRST time ive ever welded stainless. was in a rush to get it done, there are alot of things i will do differently, like do the root pass no filler lol, fit everything up nicer and use a dam real collector, i just did it how he wanted it.   

I will post pics when i get home, my cell pics blow dick

THANKS NOGSSSSS

[90turboteg]

didn't get to weld much on the manifold at work so i went and set up my friends sw250dx and omg, that thing work 1000 times better than my pos welder at work, i couldn't believe how much nicer everything turned out, finished it there, only did 10% of them at work, pics up tomorrow for you pros to critique my first ss welds

im fucking tired

[Corey]

im sure it came out fine. practice makes perfect.

pretty welds dont make power, so dont worry if it didnt come out to honda tech standards.

[90turboteg]

posted some pics, i will deff do things differently next time, but it turned out ok. what you guys think.. btw the guy got a foot of straight when i told him to get 2 feet so i could make a collector, but he didnt so this is how i had to do it, works ok, hes looking for 300whp on a h22 in a boat accord.

also im not done porting the inlet/outlets yet and cleaning them up...

[turbob16hatch]

the fab looks fine but the welds are badly contaminated. just remember on stainless cleanliness is the most important thing. SO clean clean clean.......

Did you clean the flange's before welding? if not there can be a coating on the metal that makes tig welding fucking imposable.

but for your first one it looks good.

[90turboteg]

i didnt clean the head flange up, the weld actualy didnt look contaminated as bad until my friend fucking hosed the manifold down when it was too hot to touch... i hate working with people that dno what there doing but certain welds are too hot and contaminated, i was like wow thats cool u fuck. they did look alot better... but ya in the future id like to make a 1" thick flange to bolt the head flange to so it dosent warp, and also clean the ss up alot better. and mock it up with a tig not a mig, thats why theres a few high spots here and there, plus i get my back purge setup next week and the tungsten sharpener. so should turn out alot better next time... thanks for the info helped alot though

[Corey]

next time wire wheel all of the stainless before you even start building the manifold. get a 40gr flap wheel and hit the surface of the flange till all the mill scale is off it. that shit contaminates the hell out of welds.

like turbob16 said the actual fab work looks fine. just need to weld it a little cleaner. tell your buddy if that cracks its because hes a moron for quenching hot stainless, it makes it more brittle.

[90turboteg]

ya thanks for the advice, im making a topmount for my friends std vitara build so hopfully it will come out alot nicer, im sure i will get better and actualy use all of your info next time, building a topmount for my h22 integra winterish hoping that turns out good. anything different you guys would do on the welds other than the root pass stuff. i know some of them are too hot but those are the ones with the pos welder at my work..

ya and he poored water on it like 10-15mins after i got done so hopfully it didnt do too much. back purge setup is here next week... im hoping to build a few more and get better