In article dlIWf.1008$I%6.283@fed1read12, Steve B
wrote:

"Ned Simmons" wrote in message
...
In article L8IWf.1007$I%6.85@fed1read12,
says...

"fred bruce" wrote in message
...
Can 300 series stainless be welded with a gas welder?


Short question.

Short answer - no.


But the correct answer - yes - is a bit longer.

Ned Simmons

Well, yes, you can weld stainless with gas. It just looks like dog turds
and doesn't have any strength due to the very large HAZ. The high
temperatures also kill the metallurgical properties of the chromium and
other alloys that make the "stainless" stainless.

It's not quite that bad, but it also isn't good. I'd say that yes, you
can weld 300 series s/steel with gas (I've done it many years ago), but
if I had any other choice, I wouldn't. If I did, I'd expect to do a lot
of grinding/polishing, have to deal with quite a lot of distortion and
have a HAZ with significantly different properties to the parent
material.

Also the thinner the material, the worse the distortion is gonna be.
Far worse than 1020 steel.

If the item was going anywhere near a corrosive environment like salt
water, I definitely wouldn't bother unless it was an emergency and the
short life expectancy was better than nothing at all.

Pay someone with a TIG to weld it for you.

PDW