Welding Mild Steel to Stainless Steel

Thanks for your reply. I'm attaching a brass plaque which is screwed to the mild steel plate and welded to a SS tab at ground level on a sculpture. So the only strength requirement is that some vandal can't pry the plaque off and sell it.

You are right, I'll get the proper wire and have a go.

Thanks.

yep have to agree, use the Argon welding. Flux cored will tend to burn up on you trying to weld 1/2" steel. You will need lots of amps and thick wire (135-150 amps and 1.5-2mm wire) and make sure your polarity is correct as you need to put lots of heat in the thick plate, using the spilled heat to melt the thinner plate into it.

Good luck!

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Good luck!>

He will need plenty of that.

By the way--we use close to 500Amps for feeding 2mm wire in MIG/MAG .

Are you 100% certain the 1/2" piece isn't actually aluminum? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I would have thought that any kind of ferrous metal would still attract a magnet, regardless of what kind of coating may be on it (galvanized zinc, powdercoat, etc).

Yes you are wrong. Some grades of stainless will be attracted to a magnet, while other stainless grades will not. :)

Wow, I didn't know that. Do you know which grades are non-magnetic, and why that would be? More pure carbon in the alloy or something?

Rule of thumb: 3xx is non-magnetic. 4xx is magnetic.

That's not true.

316 SS will attract a magnet. They won't hold the magnet to it because the weight of the magnet is more then the magnetic polarity will hold with 316.

The 4xx type such as 430 ss is magnetic because you have mild steel with a SS lamination on each side.

I believe the reference to 'mild steel' as a core is in error when describing a standard grade of stainless.

4xx grades typically have low %ages of Ni, that's why they're still attractive to magnets.

Hi,

Try using 309 L Filler wire with argon shielding welding procedure. It would have been far more better if you would have been aware of Stainless Steel grade, if it happens to be 316 grade than switch using 309 L with Moly in it, hope such filler wires are easily available around your area.

Regards

fraternally yours

RAJIV DAMANI

Weld together with 312 staintless steel welding wire or welding rod.

Bob Davis

Why not just weld blots to the back of the plate and bolt it to the sculpture?

Or you could simply braise it using a silver solder Flux compound such as they use in HVAC for bonding dissimilar metals.

Or have some carriage bolts powder coated to match the plate and through bolt the plate to the sculpture, then tack weld the nut to the bolt to fend of pillagers.

"Or you could simply braise it using a silver solder Flux "

I typically BRAZE metals; & BRAISE meats.

wouldn't fluxed boeuf 'taste funny'?

sorry to say that you can use a mig (no flux ) has less splatter but if you are really concerned as i sometime am then at works i have used carboard to sheild the work . antispatter(not to much) should solve the problem to the point of a little wipe down . just be really aware of your wire speed to heat ratio.

strider6: well done, thanks for your support to this thread.

Hello, if you are not concerned with the corrosion and it is NOT a weld that could harm people if it fails then just weld it with regular mild steel MIG wire. I have done this many times on furniture and sculpture and so on and it will hold very well. All this stuff about using the 309 welding wire for dissimilar welds is correct but I think they miss the point that you said the weld is only on a plaque. I would like to see anyone try and pry the mild steel weld apart from the stainless and I would be truly amazed if someone could. I think if you know how to use your mig machine then you would have no problems with the carbon wire. I also cannot see buying exspensive s/s wire when you don't really need it as well.

pipewelder

Thanks!

That's what I'm going to do.

LL1