Shiney stainless TIG welds

[Engloid]

The color of a pretty, finished weld is nice, but people worry way too much on the color. Of course a dark grey (rough looking) weld usually is indicative of a problem, some blue color isn't going to hurt the weld at all. Any color on a weld is only surface CONTAMINATION. Many times, stainless will rust if you don't clean this contamination off.

all the welds I saw in this thread look just fine to me, even the darkest ones.


If you're looking to learn to weld by studying guys that weld manifolds for a living (or hobby), you will hear all kinds of bad habits, myths, BS, and even lies. Be careful.

[Engloid]

The color of a pretty, finished weld is nice, but people worry way too much on the color. Of course a dark grey (rough looking) weld usually is indicative of a problem, some blue color isn't going to hurt the weld at all. Any color on a weld is only surface CONTAMINATION. Many times, stainless will rust if you don't clean this contamination off.

all the welds I saw in this thread look just fine to me, even the darkest ones.

[fun4now]

SS seems to cool slower, or just needs shielded longer to. so don't be in a rush to pull to the torch away at the end of the weld, be shore to let the post flow cool the last of the weld.

[Laiky]

I have had better luck with a standard nozzle than a gas lens on stainless. I believe you need to turn up your flow with the GL on stainless and you will get better results. I suspect that because i thought of a GL as a gas saver it made no sense to me to increase the sheilding gas. If you over heat it or fail to sheild it while cooling you will not get the golden color. You should always sheild the back side if it is heated to red hot or better. Argon works best, but solar flux is good too. Its just hard to clean off.

[sparky mcfab]

Re Shiney Weld

A Sharp Tungstein Will Help. When The Weld Turns Black That Means You Burnt The Chrome Out Of The Stainless .

[brightspark]

I work with nothing but stainless and always use a gas lens wherever i can. Be careful as you can have too much flow which causes turbulance, drawing oxygen into the shielding gas. 10-16 lpm should be ample with a lens.

Another factor is surface contamination make sure the metals spotless. We use IPA or solvent.

[appsys]

Hey all. I've done a lot of TIG welding in the past but I've always wondered how some of these guys get the shiney rainbow colored welds on stainless. My welds are usually grey and dull looking.

I hear from talking to others that I'm welding too hot and basically cooking the welds too much. I've tried welding cooler and moving faster but I still can't get these kinds of results. Will back purging make welds like this? Anything else I can try?

Use Ceramic welding back up strips for fillet & butt welding. for details www.applicationsystems.net

[Craig in Denver]

Wow

I found this posted 8-14-07 and couldn't let it die. LOOKIT these welds!!

[cwillis]

Stainless hints

I work for a company that makes airplane engine parts for GE, and Rolls Royce and all the material we use is ethier SS or Inconel 625, and 718. you mentioned back purgeing this will help to keep the HEAT DOWN!!!!! all we use is straight Argon with 5680 welding wire on the stainless. The biggest thing when it comes down too it is the correct heat right size wire and speed too hot and you get what has been happing to you deep grey and nasty lookin weld all of our ss welds turn out a nice golden color, the rainbow color is the pefect heat angle wire and speed. And how we do it for example on a but joint no gap when the two plates fuse then you have the right heat I then ease up a bit but still keep it to a good puddle and just dab the rod into the front of the puddle. If you want to back purge then be carefull because if it is to high then it will blow back at you and then it looks realy bad.
I hope this helps out and makes some since. I will try and get some pics of some ss welds we got on the floor now. Good luck

[fun4now]

wile i'm not a pro by any means i have herd to increase the flow and the post flow as well. i do know SS is verry unhappy with air..
so far my atemps with SS have been good, i increase the flow rate and the post flow times a little when i do SS. although i have done verry little of it, what i have done came out verry nice.
looks like ZTFab has it down pat.

[ZTFab]

Thanks for the compliments guys.

These were done on my Syncrowave 250DX (of course).

Both are 304 SS. The square is 1"x.120" and the round tube is 2"x.065" (16ga).

Base setting on the machine was around 100 but I always use the foot pedal to get it where it feels good for what I'm welding.

Shielding gas is 100% Ar at about 20cfm with a #5 cup, no gas lens. 3/32", 2% Thoriated Tungsten. 1/16" 308 filler on the square tube and fuse welded the round tube.

A huge problem when welding SS can come from pulling the filler rod out of the shielding gas between dips. If you are using filler, make sure you keep the filler close enough to the weld pool to remain inside the gas cloud, if not it will contaminate the weld in a hurry.

I hope that helps.

- Paul

[kjlindgr]

Those are GORGEOUS welds!!!

Yes they are!! If you could share more information on your setup, that would be awesome!

[BWS29128]

Paul,
When you get a second, can you describe your equipment, shielding gas, filler rod, base material, etc etc etc.....? Those are GORGEOUS welds!!!
~Clint

[ZTFab]

Here are some pics of some SS work that I've done.

It's not "perfect" but it's always done the job. Getting the combination of heat and shielding gas just right helps in the quality of any weld.

- Paul

[BWS29128]

A perfect weld on stainless will have no discoloration. The colors are a result of oxygen contamination from a lack of shielding gas coverage.

I've heard this too....I wonder if different blends of shielding gas could result in discoloration? (ie: 98Ar/02He)?