mig welding steel to stainless?

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I'm fabbing a electric motor mount for a small conveyer belt. the frame that i need to weld the mount to is 2"x2" stainless steel. i'm using a 12"x14"x3/8" plate from steel and 2 8"x8"x1/4" gussets.    My question is, can i use regular .030" wire and 75/25 gas that i use for everything. i've been practicing doing some 1/4" thick t-joints of steel to stainless,vertical up and down and the welds seem to penetrate and look really good.
Reply:i think you need 309L wire..
Reply:Stainless steel conveyer frame?Sounds like something/someplace where the stainless factor is important or required.  Food or chemical or pharmaceutical?  In which case you better redo you plans and materials and use the 'appropriate' stainless materials and processes.Don't know and/or don't care type of situation for your own use?  Weld it with whatever you feel like.  Note that if you do so, you may (probably) will end up with no-longer 'stainless' in the weld and the surrounding area.If the conveyor 'stainless' happens to be a free-machining grade of stainless steel like 303 or 316F, those alloys are generally considered to be Unweldable.Just saying 'stainless' isn't always enough info to go on, as there are hundreds of different stainless steel alloys.  They are all steel, they are all stainless steel, but they don't 'behave' the same.General-purpose filler for welding plain mild steel (or sometimes other alloys of steel) to a 'general' stianless steel (304, maybe others) is usually 309 filler though.YMMV.  The best laid schemes ... Gang oft agley ...
Reply:I'm not sure what king of stainless steel it is. it's not for food or chemicals but the legs sometimes sit in 6" of water so thats the reason it was stainless steel. The tube is 2"x2" and looks about 1/4" thick if that helps, there could be a common type for that size maybe. the area i'm adding the motor to is going to be covered to protect the motor. I'm really not familiar with different types of stainless.I'm not concerend about the weld being rust resistant. I would like to know that mixing the two metals won't cause the weld to crack easily or something.
Reply:i don't know how you are set up there, and even don't know what are your options, but i think (if my imagination is good enough) instead of find what type of SS and find the right wire and take a chance to do a bad weld and start rusting after couple of days (i saw that you said those legs are fix in water) i would recommand maybe make something more mechanic, like (if the conveyer is mild steel) just weld to the conveyer a mild steel tube smaller  than your SS legs to make a sleeve and then put some SS metal screw in it or make holes in both tubes before and put bolts! it will do the same good job and you won't buy the 309L wire for this small job!Calculator > Bevel Square
Reply:i don't know how you are set up there, and even don't know what are your options, but i think (if my imagination is good enough) instead of find what type of SS and find the right wire and take a chance to do a bad weld and start rusting after couple of days (i saw that you said those legs are fix in water) i would recommand maybe make something more mechanic, like (if the conveyer is mild steel) just weld to the conveyer a mild steel tube smaller  than your SS legs to malke a sleeve and then put some SS metal screw in it or make holes in both tubes before and put bolts! it will do the same good job and you won't buy the 309L wire for this small job! If the welded joint is sit in the water it would be different and hard to answer without picture to see how look the edge of this conveyer where the leg and the weld will be done!Calculator > Bevel Square
Reply:This conveyer is used to run tile through a saw for a bullnose finish. Right now the motor is mounted undernieth and is constantly having water dripped on it. This mount will bring the motor outboard and will also have a cover built to keep water off.I bought some 309L rods to stick weld but havent practiced with them yet and my mig welds with steel wire are looking pretty good. I just hate having to spend money on another tank of gas to run the stainless wire.I'll try to make some quick drawings to explain what I'm doing.Thanks for the input guys.Chicks Dig Body DamageMiller Dynasty 200dxHobart Handler 187Lincoln AC 225
Reply:309L stick rods make really nice beads and are easy to weld with in the flat position.  But they can be very tricky if you are trying to weld  a circle around a pipe bung or something.  You'll get a nice big hole in your bead with a piece of slag at the bottom that will have to be ground out before continuing.
Reply:Yeah I ran a couple beads with the stick welder this morning and yes welding flat they were great. When I tried welding vertical it came out terrible. Is there a good technique for this? It's been awhile since welding class.Chicks Dig Body DamageMiller Dynasty 200dxHobart Handler 187Lincoln AC 225
Reply:Stainless eletrodes with Exxx-17 are made for flat and horizontal use only.So if your 309L stick electrodes are E309L-17, then they are made for use in the flat and horizontal positions only.Exxx-15 and Exxx-16 are made for out-of-position welding (welding in other than flat/horizontal positions).  But even there, RTFM and see what positions that particular rod is 'rated' for.example:  Lincoln Excalibur E309/E309L is available in E309-15 (all position rated) and E309-16 (no vert down) and E309-17 (no vert down).YMMV.  The best laid schemes ... Gang oft agley ...
Reply:The rods i bought are radnor e309L-16. I've been trying to research stainless stick welding some and it seems like vertical is not recomended. I read somewhere that welding tacks one after another   is a good way to do it.The frame i need to attach my bracket to is way too heavy to be moved around to get a better position.I'm thinking about welding my motor mount to a 1' peice of 2"x2" angle and then use 6 or 8 stainless bolts to mount it and also run welds up both sides of the angle iron with my mig welder. I'm pretty much out of scrap stainless to practice stick welding with now so that seems like my best option.Btw the two welders i have are an old lincoln 225 stick welder and a hobart 180 something.Chicks Dig Body DamageMiller Dynasty 200dxHobart Handler 187Lincoln AC 225
Reply:I agree with 309. We use it everyday in my shop. Cant beat it!Launce- CWI
Reply:Well I'm welding the motor mount on this week and did a little practice over the weekend. I used 1/8" 309L-16 rods with my old lincoln set at 75. Nothing pretty but with some more practice I think I'll be alright. Maybe go to 3/32" rods. This is vertical up.Pretty nasty...Chicks Dig Body DamageMiller Dynasty 200dxHobart Handler 187Lincoln AC 225
Reply:Some of those welds look to be a bit cold.  Try turning up the amperage.Lincoln Power Mig 216Lincoln AC/DC-225/125Miller  625 X-Treme PlasmaMiller 211 Forney 95FI-A 301HF 91110Victor Journeyman O/PMilwaukee DaytonMakita  Baileigh NRA Life Member
Reply:thanks will try that.Chicks Dig Body DamageMiller Dynasty 200dxHobart Handler 187Lincoln AC 225
Reply:On the vertical up if you hold the arc on each side alittle longer it should flatten out
Reply:Well just finished up doing 11 t-joints vertical up with the 1/8" 309L's and the best technique I can do is a triangle type pattern. It don't look like dimes but I'm comfortable enough to do the job. will do a few more passes in the morning before I head to the job. I would like to know if it will hurt anything to do the one vertical up pass and then run a vertical down over it to make it look better. Would that affect the original weld at all?The people I'm doing this for understand that I don't weld for a living and that I'm doing this for extra money so they don't expect perfection, just good enough to get the job done. I'm going to have about 40"s of these vertical welds to hold a motor that's less than 2hp. The mount will probably rust off before the welds give, I hope.Chicks Dig Body DamageMiller Dynasty 200dxHobart Handler 187Lincoln AC 225
Reply:I turn it up hot and just run them in fast, I do a lot of stainless to carbon socket welds with 309 stick rods..
Reply:Got the job done today. This was my first job where I did the work on site. I was surprised that I didn't forget to bring anything although my sawzall went out on me today after like 10 years of use.I had the motor mount welded on in about an hour and a half with cutting gussets and fitting the mount plate. I was pretty happy that the welds turned out better than my practice beads, they weren't great though. The shop foreman was setting up the machine while i was putting on the mount. As soon as I was done and cleaning up he came over and noticed the adjustment slots he had machined in my plate were wrong and asked if the whole thing could be moved. Guess I should of had him ok everything before I buzzed it on. He seemed pissed but it happends.    Anyways here's a few pics...This is a machine to put a bullnose edge on tile. I made the platforms to stand on that are below the machine.Chicks Dig Body DamageMiller Dynasty 200dxHobart Handler 187Lincoln AC 225