"Don Foreman" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 13:42:40 GMT, "Karl Townsend"
wrote:

A friend asked me if mild steel could be welded to stainless in
production. That's all I know thus far: I don't know anything yet
about thicknesses, joint design, or expected volume.

While you're waiting for the answer from the expert Ernie, I'll mention
that I've done this exact thing many times. Only because I bought
litterally
a truck load of stainless for a song and its cheaper to use than buying
new
mild sheet steel. Of course, you lose the stainless properties, other
than
that, I've used both mig and tig for welding. Haven't had the ocassion
but I
bet stick would work also. For welding, it acts just like a similar
thickness of mild steel. Torch won't work on stainless though.

With MIG, do you use stainless wire or just mild steel?

I'll jump in, too. I use mild steel wire with CO2, and it welds all the 300
and 400 series stainless I can lay my hands on. You do (as said before
here) lose the stainless quality not only at the weld, but in a region
around it. But that's not so tough, if you've got a piece of merchant stock
welded to it. (that's usually what the "MS" after an alloy means, not "mild
steel")

LLoyd


LLoyd