Stainless Steel Tig

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Hi,  As  a new  beginner with  tig.   Would it be  considered more  difficult to  get started  with  stainless  steel  welding.?  Also   anyone  any  experience  using  Solar flux.  Would   100%  Argon be the  right  Gas  To use  with  stainless?  Thanks for any help or suggestions.
Reply:Yes 100 percent argon. I would say stainless would be the hardest since heat control is more important on SS and it takes more effort to achieve it. I've never used solar flux but heard good things about it.
Reply:Yes, IMHO stainless is going to be more difficult as a beginner because it is more sensitive to heat input. 100% Argon is the correct shielding gas. Another complication with stainless is that it needs to be purged with argon on the back side of the weld too, otherwise you end up with oxidation called "sugaring". Probably not critical if you are just practicing on coupons, but something to be aware of. Is that what you were thinking of the solar flux for?Miller Multimatic 255
Reply:It's a little more difficult than steel because it's temperature sensitive. You can easily "cook" stainless welding with low amperage or moving to slowly. It also warps a lot more and you often have to shield the back of the weld with argon to keep it from oxidizing. It may not be important to you but it's also a lot more expensive. I've never used solar Flux but I believe it's type "B" that works. You need a tight joint to use it and after one weld pass I'm pretty sure you need to clean it off and reapply if you need to weld more. 100% argon is what you need for 99% of tig welding. With stainless you want a tight arc and high enough amperage to get a puddle going pretty quickly and start moving. Stainless isn't as thermally conductive as steel so the heat builds up fast and then you have issues with shielding. If you let the arc stay in one place too long you will cook the stainless and lose some corrosion resistance. Plus it warps more. Just to give you an idea, on 16g stainless I like around 55-60 amps. I push the pedal to the floor and get moving about as fast as I can see the puddle flowing where I need it.Airco Ac/Dc 300 HeliwelderMillerMatic 200 (stolen)Miller Maxstar 150STLMiller AEAD200LE (welding and generating power

) Hobart MIG
Reply:Stainless is harder than carbon steel for sure, but two of my earliest TIG projects were stainless that turned out okay.  I would still suggest practicing with steel at the very beginning just so you're not wasting more expensive stainless stock and filler.Check out my bench vise website:  http://mivise.comMiller Syncrowave 250DXMillermatic 350P with XR AlumaProMiller Regency 200 with 22A feeder and Spoolmatic 3Hobart Champion EliteEverlast PowerTig 210EXT
Reply:SS doesn't conduct heat as well as mild steel, so the heat tends to "pile up" locally, causing warping/distortion more so than in mild steel, so yeah, it's trickier. It's also easier to get funny colors due to cooking it too much. And the hotter you get it, and the longer it's hot, the more you get carbide precipitation which can cause rusting. Not really beginner-friendly!
Reply:IMO it doesn't matter what material you start on, as long as the setup is good.Thicker material is easier to weld than thin - always. Loads of beginners start out on 1mm or 1.5mm sheet and wonder why they struggle... that's because it's difficult! 3mm+ is much easier.Murphy's Golden Rule: Whoever has the gold, makes the rules.