Stainless Steel Welding Wire Question ?

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I bought the Hobart stainless steel welding rods, and yesterday I welded stainless steel exhaust with my Lincoln stick welder.. That was the first time I've ever welded SS.It wasn't too bad, the problem was trying to weld under my truck. Not enough room for the long welding rods. I only have two welders right now. One is the Lincoln stick and one is a Campbell Hausfeld MIG Flux80 that I've had for a long time, and learned how to weld with it!My question:Since I welded the stainless steel with the Hobart SS welding rods with ''no gas''.. Can I buy the stainless steel welding wire for the MIG and weld SS ''without gas'' ?Any help would be ''greatly appreciated''! Thanks!
Reply:The stick rods were fluc coated.  You will need gas to weld SS with Mig.
Reply:Don't forget you need to either back-purge or use solar flux B
Reply:They do make self-shielded wire for stainless, but only in larger sizes. Nothing that will work with an 80A C-H welder, that's for sure!JohnA few weldersA lot of hammersA whole lot of C-clamps
Reply:Thanks for all the replies!I wasn't sure about the SS wire, so I thought I would ask before I bought a roll and I'm glad I did!I know I need a larger MIG welder than the one I have... I've been planning to buy one and I want a MIG that I can use a Spool Gun with so I can weld aluminum too! That little MIG that I have has been great for welding very thin metal!The welding rods for SS worked great!.. Problem was trying to use them under a truck that wasn't on a lift, only on ramps. lolThanks everyone!
Reply:Originally Posted by CopperheadI bought the Hobart stainless steel welding rods, and yesterday I welded stainless steel exhaust with my Lincoln stick welder.. That was the first time I've ever welded SS.It wasn't too bad, the problem was trying to weld under my truck. Not enough room for the long welding rods. I only have two welders right now. One is the Lincoln stick and one is a Campbell Hausfeld MIG Flux80 that I've had for a long time, and learned how to weld with it!My question:Since I welded the stainless steel with the Hobart SS welding rods with ''no gas''.. Can I buy the stainless steel welding wire for the MIG and weld SS ''without gas'' ?Any help would be ''greatly appreciated''! Thanks!
Reply:A couple of things.To get the stick in there, sometimes you can bend the stick to a little right angle and get it in there - you will probably knock the flux off at the bend so you end up cutting a piece off and rebending.  Kinda sucks for those expensive rods.   Youtube probably has some videos of people doing some extreme out of position welding.When welding in a catalytic converter (409 stainless), I mocked up the system, put in a few good tacks, and then dropped the system and welded it up on the ground next to the truck/suv.   I had a slip joint fitting in there so I could remove it in the future.  Used stainless steel band clamps around the slip joint.   With hangers in front of the cat and behind, it was pretty solid.As for flux core wire for stainless - not only is it typically only available in larger rolls (30-33#) but it is very very expensive.  If you are going to do a lot of outdoor stainless welding, probably not a bad thing to have.  I think ESAB lists the rolls for $800 (my memory is getting bad - check out the prices yourself).You will find out that getting a MIG gun in there is no easy trick and you will probably want to drop the exhaust anyway....BTW, one neat trick I saw...  Slightly large gap an the two exhaust pipes were not coming together.  This was a repair shop that did custom exhaust on the side.   The guy who did the exhaust pulled out about 6 inches of wire from the MIG gun, he cut it off, straightened it a bit and tacked on side to one pipe and muscle the other half of the pipe near, and tacked the other side.  So the 6" wire was sort of a strap, bridging the gap.  He got the pipes close enough that he could put in a couple of good tacks, dropped the pipe and finished it off.   I suspect it took him 5 minutes total, including dropping the rusty bolts off the exhaust manifold.   Cool thing he did it single handed.  I was about to offer to hold the pipes close... no need.Con Fuse!Miller Dynasty 350Millermatic 350P-Spoolmatic 30AMiller Multimatic 200Hypertherm PowerMax 1000G3Miller Maxstar 200DX