24 gauge stainless help

[kvwall]

Does anyone have any ideas about how to weld a piece of 24 gauge SS? This is a long piece of trim from a classic car. It needs about a 1/4 inch weld.

I tried using a Dynasty 350 on 5 amps. Too hot when the arc starts and not hot enough once it stabilizes. Tried using heat sinks to keep the heat away from the trim. Tried pulse. No luck.

Any suggestions?

[dave powelson]

Does anyone have any ideas about how to weld a piece of 24 gauge SS? This is a long piece of trim from a classic car. It needs about a 1/4 inch weld.

I tried using a Dynasty 350 on 5 amps. Too hot when the arc starts and not hot enough once it stabilizes. Tried using heat sinks to keep the heat away from the trim. Tried pulse. No luck.

Any suggestions?

No luck as in?? fusion, or melt thru, or both?
Type of joint? pics always help

You need to use sample 24 ga. SS to establish parameters

Firing off on the filler-not the parent is a must
Pulsing a 3-5 cps for manual TIG helps on most thin SS,
then playing with the peak and background settings
.040 or .020 electrode
there's ways to tone down the dynasty's rather aggressive arc start
(I didn't like that-at all, at first--but now I'm getting more comfortable
with it--on 24 ga. SS headlight rings. It's not as violent as it first
appears to be--it's just different from a nice, soft, start. )
filler size dependent on the mystery joint, maybe .024 or .030

The older cars may have used variations of 304 or something else.
On old ford SS radiator surrounds, 308 filler has worked
Solar flux on the backside is needed-or tight fitting chill block

[kvwall]

Thanks Dave. It was a butt joint with 2 cps on pulse and a 1/16 electrode. Melt through on initial arc start was the problem. I didn't have any other 24 ga to set up the machine and practice with. No pics either.

Starting the arc on the filler sounds like a good tip.

[stevenjweld]

No filler an option? Turn your amps up a bit and just mash your pedal all the way down and let it up right away. Stainless is tough stuff and can usually be fused. Just a thought

[WELD81]

I used to occasionally weld 24ga. S.S. for counter tops. I would use shielding gas on the back of the weld sometimes by piping the gas into a manifold constructed of aluminum insulation tape on the back of the 24ga. I would also start the arc on the filler. I used .030 S.S. mig wire cut into lengths for filler rod because it was thin and worked well with low amps.

[dave powelson]

Does anyone have any ideas about how to weld a piece of 24 gauge SS? This is a long piece of trim from a classic car. It needs about a 1/4 inch weld.

I tried using a Dynasty 350 on 5 amps. Too hot when the arc starts and not hot enough once it stabilizes.
Any suggestions?

In addition to dialing down the amps on the 350-you need to go in
the sub menu to select electrode size, etc. It tailors the start to the electrode size selected.

[bayweld]

I use an old AC-DC transformer stick welder with an air cooled torch, small tungsten,scratch start.....First wire the primary voltage to 110 volts (do this at the cord cap) Use a starter plate or start the arc on the rod ....You can wire the old transformer boxes up like this as they don't have any electronics inside, only a transformer....The fan may have to be disconnected......

[Autobodytec]

S S has different colors when you polish it you can see the welds I used 308 on some 59 Chevy trim it was very close. I also started the arc on the filler then file it sad and polish it.

[Country Metals]

Just a thought, but can't you solder it? Depending on where the joint is, you might not ever get a weld on it. I have welded on cars from every angle so it is hard to picture just where this weld is.

Depending on if this can help or not, but needs 2 people to do this. I made a jig for welding very thin s/s that used a 1/2" thick copper backing with a 3/16" hole bored through it that I connected water lines to that allowed water to cool the copper faster then the low amps could input on it. If this is possible, you would need to increase your amps to say 15 because 5 amps would get sucked away by water.

24 ga doesn't have enough metal to fuse unless a real good joint is made.