Anything welding

Just find a place to get it bent

You will waste so much time kink so much tube

Have it bent unless your to the point your needing enough bent to justify buying a good bender

 

That's what I needed to hear. Otherwise I proabably would have blown half a day looking for a cheap solution.

I've got a few projects in my head, but the one that needs a bender is going to be some rock sliders for my wife's 4runner. Planning to pick up a gas bottle for that too. Any suggestions on whether I should go buy a small harbor freight c02 bottle and have airgas fill it, or just go all through air gas? Thinking I'll just go through airgas for everything, but I've never done this before, so just had to ask.

Then a follow up on that question; 75/25 bottle or 100% c02?

 

Hi - could use some help: Did I stupidly make the wrong assumption - that my exhaust on my stock 2006 v6 TRD is mild steel? Is it actually stainless? And, i chopped the tip off and welded on a segment of the original exhaust to deflect exhaust away from my spare... It seemed to weld fine with regular steel wire. I would have thought it would have not welded if it was stainless. Anyway, questions:
- is the exhaust in fact stainless?
- am i going to be sad in short order when my weld cracks or fails (and therefore, should i tig it when i do the crossover re-route?)
Here's the weld in question:

 

I got all my stuff through Matheson Tri Gas, and use the 75/25 unless you are doing TIG and then use 10% Argon.

 

I have never seen a stainless exhaust that was from the factory .

Maybe the newer trucks

Then most vehicles I get under have had the exhaust replaced a few times

If things looked fine while welding and it did not crack in the heat effected zone (HAZ) as it cooled you should be fine time will tell.

Kind of expensive to buy a spool of 309L unless you weld lots of mild steel to stainless

 

You can weld SS alloy will carbon steel welding wire with no problem. I do it all the time. The weld will rust, but it will be there longer than the exhaust. You got no worries.

Did you take a magnet to the pipe? SS doesn't grab a magnet as hard as carbon steel.

 

That is the problem with Stainless so many different flavors and all so very different

 

Go thru AG. They don't like to fill HF bottles(exchange actually). They will charge you more for the gas. If you go thru AG for the bottle, it will be a bit cheaper.

As for CO2, what you save is not much. Tri mix is decent price and it last a long time.

As for getting a stronger weld using CO2, the only ones who can really benefit are the pro welders. Us DIY ers will never be able to tell the difference.

 

U mean 100% argon right?

 

Yeah. Typo.

 

http://roccitycafe.com/blog/page/2/

 

thx for the help guys - forgot about the magnet trick. duh!

 

Picked up a cylinder of 75/25 today, ran through a chunk of wire playing with settings. The dummy sheet on the inside of the welder suggested wire speed 8 and all the heat I had for the plate I was practicing on. I tried several different wire speeds, and different hand speeds, but they're still looking like a worm has miraculously appeared. The welds aren't laying down as much as they did with the flux core, and I can't figure out what to change.

Since my machine is at the bottom end of the power spectrum, I guess I could try thinner steel(didn't think to try that while I was outside practicing) to see if that would make a difference. I'm still getting good penetration though. Any suggestions right off the bat? I'm sure it's a simple solution, I'm just new to this.

Thanks guys

 

You pushing the puddle or pulling?

 

hey Andrewb
can you post a picture?

 

What size wire??

 

Did you change the polarity?

 

I knew it was something simple I'd messed up!

I started to answer everyone else's questions, then as soon as I read Kirks question I realized that I had forgotten to change the polarity. I'm back at work for the next three, so I'll change it on Friday and report back on what I've found.

That makes me feel a lot better, because I was pretty discouraged not only with the look of the welds but the behavior of the welder, since it was doing tons better before I went out and spent a hunk of change on a cylinder.

 

looks great well done!