Tips On How To Do Stainless Steel Welding

| Tuesday, May 17, 2016
By Debra Wood


Welding is usually the process of joining two metals by applying heat on them and it is used in auto repairs, homes, craft projects and boats. Every metal type has a significantly different method of joining it to other metals. Below are some important steps to follow during stainless steel welding.

The first step would be to ensure your own personal safety before embarking on this exercise. Make sure that you wear some protective clothing like full-length pants and shirts that expose as little skin as possible. You can also invest in a pair of gloves, protective eyewear and ear protection.

You should then choose the joining method to use from the ones that are available for base metals. The most common of these include the lap, T, edge, corner and also butt. In order to choose the right method there are several things you can look at like the strength needed, metal thickness and joint accessibility.

The welding process that would be most appropriate for you to use ought to be considered. You can choose from the following processes gas tungsten arc or GTAW, shielded metal arc, SMAW, gas metal arc, GMAW, flux cored arc, FCAW. You could also look at getting an inert gas that would be compatible to the process you choose from these except for the SMAW, for the others you will choose from argon to helium.

A filler metal ought to be chosen for this process especially if the metals to be fused are same. It is important for the base metal to mirror the composition of the base metals. If your metals are different then ensure that the filler metal you choose is the one that has the least likeliness to crack and it should be compatible to the base metal.

The base metal should then be cleaned well in order to eliminate the chances of the formation of oxide on your base metal. A brush made from stainless wire would be efficient for this job of gently brushing the metal to completely eradicate oxides and burrs that exist on it. Ensure that you also put on your gloves to prevent oils from your hands from being spread to the stainless steel.

The next thing to do would be to ensure that you bring the metal you will be using to room temperature. You should note that this is done on martensitic and ferritic metal only but for the austenic metal you will not need to preheat it. It would also be appropriate to preheat your metal if it is thick or even high in carbon.

Lastly, you should apply the welding torch to the two pieces of metal you would be welding together. You should also see to it that you also apply some post heating after the process as this metal cools down rapidly causing lots of internal stress which could lead to cracking. The post-heating process is therefore essential to eliminate chances of cracking and especially more so when thick metal pieces are joined together. Ensure that you remove any slag that is left on the weld spot.




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