Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hi all, Ive had the good fortune to come into possession of several kegs, in the past I have had others to all the work for me, this time Im doing it myself. Has anyone had any success welding stainless with a mig? I can get suitable wire and gas easy enough, at best my welding is ok, practice makes perfect they say :-D The plan is to make a gas fired boiler and a 3" copper pelican head for stripping. Any help, ideas is appreciated.

Hi Tas,

Let us know how it works out for ya as I am currently looking for a welder to try a bit of stainless welding.

Cheers Rowey :handgestures-thumbupleft:

My Brother is a boiley, reckons it should work. just thought I would try get a little feedback first. This will be my first build by myself :o

I had kegs done with a MIG.

It wasn't pretty, but it got the job done. I would recommend a TIG if you want a neater job.

I've never welded 2mm stainless with a mig, used it on thicker materials. Don't really know what to say, it's not very smooth and you tend to run hot to get it flowing. It's a job for the tig all day. In saying that I used 2.5mm electrodes on my boiler so it must be possible. Look for the thinnest wire available and since you will need argon you may as well tee in and purge at the same time.
Not wanting to buy a $380 bottle of argon is why I used stick... If you have the gas tig is the go.
I vaguely remember needing different rollers in the wire feeder but don't hold me to that.

EDIT- you would definitly get it with a STT machine but they are pretty special (expensive)

TasSpirits wrote:Hi all, Ive had the good fortune to come into possession of several kegs, in the past I have had others to all the work for me, this time Im doing it myself. Has anyone had any success welding stainless with a mig? I can get suitable wire and gas easy enough, at best my welding is ok, practice makes perfect they say :-D The plan is to make a gas fired boiler and a 3" copper pelican head for stripping. Any help, ideas is appreciated.

I've done mig on kegs i find a series of overlayed spot welds work best. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I've done mig on kegs i find a series of overlayed spot welds work best. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

That is the approach I was thinking of, hoping to avoid to much warping by spot welds opposite each other, let it cool then go again. Did you gas flush while doing yours? Im using a 150amp mig with disposable bottles.

Thanks for the input everyone :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I would recommend purging with gas to stop oxidizing on the inside :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I've done a fair bit of ss mig and to be honest I didn't find it much different to use than mild steel. The stainless will warp more of course but other than that I found it ok. Like any mig, you may have trouble getting a good seal cause they tend to leave pinholes and of course thiner metal will be harder but should be fine to use.

Cheers guys, next trip to town I will be getting some supplies, will start a build tread once I get Started :-D