Welding 16ga stainless exhaust pipe

[rangerfredbob]

I need to make some intercooler tubing for my F350 so I bought a kit of mandrel bent tubing from Amazon, it's 304 stainless and apparently around 16ga thick... so, which method would you use to weld it? I have a welder (Titanium Unlimited 200) capable of scratch start TIG, MIG and spool gun along with a bottle of 75/25 and straight Argon, have a spool of stainless solid wire and some stainless filler rod. I did a little looking and apparently for MIG straight Argon isn't ideal but fine for TIG and some people just make filler rod out of a twisted pair of stainless MIG wire...

So, thoughts? I haven't TIG welded yet but I'm sure I can figure it out, I'm used to stick welding and going slow and have plenty of material to practice on... leaning toward TIG but spool gun sounds easier if it would work fine...

 

[Ed ke6bnl]

I am no pro hobbiest. Will need some on the side practice and will want to purge the tube with argon while welding the outside or it will be a mess on the inside. YouTube is your friend

 

[al3]

Never TIG welded before and considering starting with something round, thin walled and made out of stainless…...I wish you luck.

 

[sandman2234]

Never TIG welded before and considering starting with something round, thin walled and made out of stainless…...I wish you luck.

Well, it could be aluminum, round, thin walled! At least with Stainless you can see the temp change before the bottom falls out!
I would suggest that some 16ga stainless be procured and practice, practice practice before starting the project!
David from jax

 

[rangerfredbob]

From what I've heard there's roughly twice what I need in tubing with the kit I got so I have plenty extra... even have some flat plate to practice on first... I wasn't planning on being dumb and jumping in without practice... also not in a hurry, probably jump in around August or in the winter... want to get injectors and other parts on hand before I get that deep.

 

[al3]

Well, it could be aluminum, round, thin walled! At least with Stainless you can see the temp change before the bottom falls out!

Someday I hope to be good enough to do scratch restarts on out of position small dia round tubes and maintain a quality bead.

 

[dstig1]

TIG for sure. 16ga is going to be a challenge fer sure. I would recommend a foot pedal for better control and easier starts, especially given the thin gage. - If the unit can use one. Learn on something thicker - 1/8" is not bad. Tubing - especially small dia - is a whole 'nuther world too as al3 somewhat indelicately put it. You will want to set up to backpurge or use Solar Flux on the insides to protect the joints.

 

[rangerfredbob]

Not really set up for purging, but we'll see what I can do... unfortunately the welder isn't pedal capable either... we'll see about getting some practice in over the next week or two... rebuilding the transmission is way ahead in importance...

It's 3" tube so it's not super small diameter...

 

[BukitCase]

RFB, might wanna bookmark this page, seems to cover things pretty good -

How To TIG Weld Stainless Steel

This article will teach you the entire process of TIG welding stainless steel. You’ll learn the challenges, types of stainless, how to set up everything from gas to your TIG machine, and finally, how to put everything into practice to produce high-quality TIG welds on this beautiful metal.

yeswelder.com

HTH... steve

 

[rangerfredbob]

Bukit, thanks, that's very interesting and should be helpful, depending on weather and other projects I'll hopefully give it some practice soon. Not an ideal first project but better than aluminum, I don't have the welder for TIG on aluminum anyway, that's why I got the spool gun, that's a whole other bag of worms... my boat does need a swim step though...