4x4 North

This post is inspired by a Facebook post, I was recently chided as being 100% wrong for saying that color with a weld don't matter when it comes to most people with most wheeling rigs most of the time.

So here is a place to brag about your credentials and cred, show off your amazingly glorious pictures of dimes, and beat on slight imperfections

Also a good place to ask questions, but please be particular on your question for proper advice.

Thinking of buying equipment? toss it in here as well.

I don't normally post my "credentials and certs" online, because none of that matters. I get paid to do army stuff, I just happen to have a machine shop at the moment and for some reason they expect me to weld every now and then on scary ass whirly birds

I don't weld magnesium or titanium, but Inconel, aluminium, and stainless from 0.032-0.250" are the things I do at work as needed, and we don't need it often.

At home, I only weld with 115v stuff. 140 amps is all the world really needs

I'm a firm believer that welding on cars doesn't really matter. I don't give a shit if it is your cage or suspension or grab bar, it will probably be fine AS LONG AS:

Your toes are tied in

You aren't cracked

Your throat is smooth

you don't have undercut

You used enough amps to get enough penetration.

Pretty princess instagram welds.

All straw tig welds? Sounds like a waste of argon to me

Tack-Tack-Tack dimes with 50% edge variation? you are just wasting time, squeeze the trigger and get it over with.

TIG wire size matters more than people care to admit, electrode grinding only matter for low amp stuff, blunted tips are generally stupid for most people

Anyone ever stick welded stainless? I need to modify some commercial kitchen sinks and counters to fit my kitchen and I hate fucking around with any process that requires gas.

haven't tried personally.

best guess, you will need to travel faster than you would with comparable steel as it does not dissipate heat the same way as regular steel. use a little bit lower amps than you would for mild, keep a tight arc length and don't hang out. Should work fine. how thick are they? Stainless is very sensitive to oxidization and if you are hot enough that you get melted metal all the way through without purging/back gas, it will crystalize and turn in to trash at least halfway up into your weld.

so if you can't back purge, get small enough electrodes and run few enough amps and go fast enough to avoid going all the way through.

stainless steel welding, hex chrome VI is created and released when you weld stainless, it is a heavy metal and a carcinogen. don't breathe it, keep your head out of the flume

It's thin material. I was figuring I'd use backing tape to control oxidation. I'm probably gonna wind up starting with a 2-bay sink and a counter and cutting it up to fit the space. Fumes don't bother me. I have a really good, like "cut up tires with an angle grinder and weld galvanized indoors" good fume extractor I built using the bigger HF dust collector.

Hi, i have a welding problem...i suck lol
I can only wire weld... Flux core or mig. No stick or tig.
My biggest problem is I'm shaky as a crack whore that needs a fix.
That is all
Thank you

arse_sidewards wrote: ↑Fri Apr 17, 2020 3:17 am Anyone ever stick welded stainless? I need to modify some commercial kitchen sinks and counters to fit my kitchen and I hate fucking around with any process that requires gas.

I have. Fuck that. I mean it actually runs okay once you get used to it, but to get a proper looking bead just eluded me. It you're going to grind it smooth after it might be fine though.

arse_sidewards wrote: ↑Fri Apr 17, 2020 9:40 am It's thin material. I was figuring I'd use backing tape to control oxidation. I'm probably gonna wind up starting with a 2-bay sink and a counter and cutting it up to fit the space. Fumes don't bother me. I have a really good, like "cut up tires with an angle grinder and weld galvanized indoors" good fume extractor I built using the bigger HF dust collector.

https://www.lincolnelectric.com/en-us/s ... rodes.aspx

well, that is a pretty long lincoln electric response concerning electrode selection.

https://www.lincolnelectric.com/en-us/C ... nElectric)

looks like they make electrodes down to 3/32, you can give it a shot, but that sounds too large for 'thin' sink of maybe 0.040" unless you can get a heavy heat sink around where you want to weld. stainless also grows and moves a bunch, just another thing to beware of

Sterlingfire wrote: ↑Fri Apr 17, 2020 1:26 pm Hi, i have a welding problem...i suck lol
I can only wire weld... Flux core or mig. No stick or tig.
My biggest problem is I'm shaky as a crack whore that needs a fix.
That is all
Thank you

it's comical because i can't hardly hold my hand steady at all, see my horrible freehand cutting torch stuff, yet i also cannot lower myself to 'walk the cup' or 'drag the cup' TIG welding

tig finger heat shield has really helped reduce the amount of burning on my hands.

arse_sidewards wrote: ↑Fri Apr 17, 2020 3:17 am Anyone ever stick welded stainless? I need to modify some commercial kitchen sinks and counters to fit my kitchen and I hate fucking around with any process that requires gas.

It's fun.. If your not used to it it will be really fun. The puddle is more fluid that mild steel and vertical is a nightmare the couple of times I've done it( I dont do it very often)

I could be wrong but arnt most commercial counters silver soldered in joints??

Provience wrote: ↑Fri Apr 17, 2020 8:59 pm

Sterlingfire wrote: ↑Fri Apr 17, 2020 1:26 pm Hi, i have a welding problem...i suck lol
I can only wire weld... Flux core or mig. No stick or tig.
My biggest problem is I'm shaky as a crack whore that needs a fix.
That is all
Thank you

it's comical because i can't hardly hold my hand steady at all, see my horrible freehand cutting torch stuff, yet i also cannot lower myself to 'walk the cup' or 'drag the cup' TIG welding

tig finger heat shield has really helped reduce the amount of burning on my hands.

Yeah, same... can't torch or plasma in a straight line to save my family's lives...
But i can group a 30 rd mag inside a 4" diameter circle within 30 seconds from 50 yards Good enough for me

ive been in the automotive industry long enough to know that a 110 mig welder with flux core wire, a knotted whip, and on a 100 foot extension cord in the hands of someone with even minor skills, can make better welds then 75 percent of the factory welds ive seen on frames and axles. Even alot of the aftermarket stuff out there is terrible. bumper manufacturers are some of the worst.

having had to just undo my own welds on the buggy motor mounts Im pretty confident that my stuff isnt going to come apart anytime soon.

pointsnorth wrote: ↑Tue Apr 21, 2020 2:56 pm having had to just undo my own welds on the buggy motor mounts Im pretty confident that my stuff isnt going to come apart anytime soon.

Same. I'm only running a 110 sears brand Mig, but I did not enjoy having to move my motor mounts back 3".

That was the day I learned the value of tack welds and mockups.

Joe_the_ice_man wrote: ↑Wed Apr 22, 2020 7:01 pm

pointsnorth wrote: ↑Tue Apr 21, 2020 2:56 pm having had to just undo my own welds on the buggy motor mounts Im pretty confident that my stuff isnt going to come apart anytime soon.

Same. I'm only running a 110 sears brand Mig, but I did not enjoy having to move my motor mounts back 3".

That was the day I learned the value of tack welds and mockups.

Ah yes, the ole don't burn it home until you know shit fits Been there done that one too many times

When adjusting gas flow for MIG what flow is best? I am using .030 wire with 70/30 argon/co2 .