John in Oly, WA Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 I need to weld some 1/4" 316 Stainless. I have a little Lincoln 135 Plus wire feed welder and .030 316L wire. And I have an Everlast PowerARC 200ST stick welder. Lincoln recommends tri-mix or 98%Ar/2%O2 for MIG welding. Should I rent a bottle of the tri-mix or Ar/O2 and MIG weld it with multiple passes or get the 316L stick and stick weld it (probably with multiple passes as well)? Which would you do if this was the equipment you had available? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba682 Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 Save money and stick weld it with stiches to controll pulling or tack it to a jig for the same reason i dont know what a bottle of try mix down there costs but up here its around 100 /150 bucks plus ya got to have the contract.Anyway goodluck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John in Oly, WA Posted March 31, 2017 Author Share Posted March 31, 2017 Thanks Bubba! That's a good enough reason right there to go with stick welding it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John in Oly, WA Posted March 31, 2017 Author Share Posted March 31, 2017 Stopped by the local welding supply at lunch today. A small bottle of tri-mix - $200 just for the bottle, then I didn't ask the cost for the gas. I just bought a lb. of 316L sticks for $20.00. What can I say? I'm cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba682 Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 I call it frugal lol plus i stick weld for a livin lol... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 Tri mix would be the WRONG shielding gas! You would have had to use Argon or ruin the SS. The guys at the welding supply didn't recommend tri mix did they?! Stick! Spending money on the wrong thing is worse than the opposite of anti-frugal! Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba682 Posted April 1, 2017 Share Posted April 1, 2017 Whats wrong with stick weldin it Frosty... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 1, 2017 Share Posted April 1, 2017 6 hours ago, bubba682 said: Whats wrong with stick weldin it Frosty... Nothing, I'd stick weld it. Okay, I see where I was unclear. I said STICK! meaning that was the right choice. Then I tacked on the thing about wasting money buying the wrong thing. I was talking about mig welding SS with tri mix. AND just now I thought to myself, "self it's been a long time since used tri mix maybe you shoulld check." So I just looked. Guess what? Things have changed a lot since I did much welding and they make tri mix for SS. I'd stick weld it. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba682 Posted April 1, 2017 Share Posted April 1, 2017 lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John in Oly, WA Posted April 3, 2017 Author Share Posted April 3, 2017 Well , I'm better at mig than stick, but I'm much better with $20 for a lb. of 316L stick than I am with $200 for a small bottle of tri-mix that I'll probably use once. So I'll run some practice beads on the scrap with the stick to get everything set right and proceed in that direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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