Is it possible to weld stainless to stainless using a mig welder if so do you require anything different ie wire or gas

IIRC You'll need stainless wire and an argon gas mixed with a wee bit oxygen 1-2%

Never tried it myself though!

Machine Mart sell ss wire and states its small bottles of pure argon are suitable for welding stainless

[Edited on 26/8/04 by locogeoff]

[Edited on 26/8/04 by locogeoff]

I am not an expert...but, yes, i undestand you need a different wire and gas, and more heat. I have welded a little stainless, with no probs, but the thing to watch for is rust. With different materials (ie the wire) the materials have electrolytic (correect?) differences, ie different number of positives and negatices, and that imbalance causes a flow in a particular direction, causing the corrosion, but if you clean it well and paint carefully, and not structual...prolly ok???

I've welded various grades of stainless with different flavours of gasses, I have used normal TC (80-20) with stainless using 1.2mm wire and over 400A.

For our sort of welding, I would just get a 0.5Kg reel of ss wire and go for it, just bump up the amps by about 10%. You will get a little chromium creep (the weld may eventually get a little surface rust), but, hey, ....

You could always get some 16g ss rods and arc weld, easier than for Mild steel and beautiful fillets

You could always get some 16g ss rods and arc weld, easier than for Mild steel and beautiful fillets


enlighten me! We have used the mig with argon and ss wire that works ok. but the use of the stick welder sounds good too

No real enlightenment required really, just buy the rods and use them with your arc welder. You have to lay down good welds because the slag is diamond hard, but it just curls away from a good weld

Hi All

BEWARE anyone using stainless arc rods for the first time.
As the weld cools and contracts the slag can fly off at lightning speed.
You hear a crack, next thing a near red hot speck has stuck to your eyelid.....
that's if you had time to blink.

Paul G

I've seen it done using ordinary argon/co2 mix and stainless wire for dissimilar metals. I was told you will just get carbon in the weld but if it's not structural it should be o.k. Don't know how it will last though