304 SS exhaust system

[Conrad_Turbo]

Where did you source the tube and what muffler is that? What engine is this behind?

It's a Dynomax muffler, it was chosen by the customer. Tubing was sourced through a local vendor, they give me fairly good pricing for small quantity orders. The exhaust is built for an R32 Skyline that is being heavily upgraded.

Why all the pie cuts vs. elbows or bending? None available?

Customer wanted that style, it was a lot of welding required but it was a lot of fun! Most systems I am building are with mandrel bends, they aren't difficult to source or cost (compared to labor cutting and welding). I honestly prefer pie cutting, if the customer can afford it.

[matthewe2108]

Just needs the muffler welded on.




I'll post more pics when it's up on the car.

Hi Mate, I own an R32 GTR Drag Car, just sold my 4" mandrel bend stainless exhaust and I purchased 4" titanium tubing 1mm wall and 4" titanium V band rings, I just wanted to know how u cut the angles on the tubing?? a cold saw or band saw?? and What angle did u use for your pie cuts cause that looks really really good,

Cheers Matt
Racebred Enterprises

[Conrad_Turbo]

Hi Mate, I own an R32 GTR Drag Car, just sold my 4" mandrel bend stainless exhaust and I purchased 4" titanium tubing 1mm wall and 4" titanium V band rings, I just wanted to know how u cut the angles on the tubing?? a cold saw or band saw?? and What angle did u use for your pie cuts cause that looks really really good,

Cheers Matt
Racebred Enterprises

Just saw this now so I might be a bit too late. I cut all the angles on the bandsaw. IIRC I'm pretty sure it'd be 15°, that way you can stack up to 45° and do jogs with the cut tubing.

You can see more on my site: www.mint-design.ca

[matt922]

very nice work. 18 gauge? Also, what kind of settings were you using?

I'm sure the settings are more of a personal thing with tig, but i'm kind of new to welding, and this is the kind of stuff i want to do down the road.

[kevhead63]

Very nice work.

[Conrad_Turbo]

very nice work. 18 gauge? Also, what kind of settings were you using?

I'm sure the settings are more of a personal thing with tig, but i'm kind of new to welding, and this is the kind of stuff i want to do down the road.

It was either 16ga or 18ga. I set the TIG to 80A (just a bit over 1A for 0.001" material thickness), no pulse and used some 0.030" 304 SS MIG filler wire. Just pull out what you need from the spool, cut and go!

This system I used Solarflux to back the weld, it was a ton of work. Now I backpurge, costs quite a bit in gas but the labor saved makes up for it. Here's another system I built with the backpurge setup.


Stainless Steel Dual Exhaust - Mint Design

Or here is a stainless midpipe section that I did the welding on. Customer did all the cutting, I just prepped the surface and welded it.


Stainless Midpipe Section - Mint Design

The biggest piece of advice I have for SS welding is to get a piece of scrap, measure the thickness, figure out your 1A to 0.001" thickness and set your TIG welder to be 20% higher than that. That way it gives you some reserve if you need a bit more oomph, but you most likely be in the 60-80% range on your pedal anyways. Then lay some beads, lay some cold beads and lay some hot/overheated beads (terrible grey/black welds)...so you know what a bad weld looks like. Then work your way in between a cold and a hot bead to see what the proper heat input looks like. Ultimately you should try and make samples to destroy. I don't do much destructive testing anymore...but when I was first learning I welded up lots of scraps and tried to break all of them. Then I began doing non-structural stuff (artsy stuff) where the weld strength isn't critical at all. Over time when your confidence grows you can take on bigger projects. A lot of the stuff I'm doing is nothing compared to guys on here though!