TIG Welding Stainless Steel Holes | Welding Tips & Tricks #Welding #WeldingTechniques #TIG

TIG welding stainless steel holes require backing in order to prevent granulation also known as "sugaring." Backing could be argon shielding, but could also be an aluminum or copper solid backing. Without the backing of some sort, there will be sugaring.

Sometimes aluminum or copper is the quick and easy fix. Aluminum or copper provides a heat sink and traps argon to provide adequate backing and protection for the molten stainless steel.

Join the discussion with thousands of welders at the Welding Tips & Tricks forum:

[johnshaft]

Jody is the man. I basically learned to weld by watching this channel. So I buy all my "stuff" from him.

[Dr_Xyzt]

Backing makes a monster difference. It transformed the way I weld exhaust parts together. Sometimes, you're welding exhaust parts that are very unwieldy. I use little split rings of steel inside a weld joint to join two pieces of exhaust tubing whenever I can't manage to purge the part, or if it's impractical. Another alternative is to butt the parts together, scuff them, put the band over them, and silicon braze them together. It's way nicer than a lot of the FCAW that a lot of the other shops around here use.

[jryer]

Learnt somethin' new today. Aluminum or copper backing as good as a purge box, nice!

[argyleforge]

Thank you so much for this! I was trying to fix a stainless pan and was getting so frustrated and just thought it was my ignorance. Well it was but it was my ignorance about backing!

[csabisdel]

GOD bless you Jody, appreciate your videos and your work, big thanks for your sharing too us.

[jonarbuckle]

Good to see you again. Hope you are well.

[KowboyUSA]

Keep watching these videos and I might be able to make my first decent SS weld soon.

[davejamison]

I unit exchanged my Argon bottles a couple of months ago and afterward I went to do some plug welds (TIG) on some 14 and 16 gauge 304SS and they sugared like crazy. Since I got the 14 gauge out of scrap I though I had an alloy issue and then made up some new parts and wound up with the same results. I was like WTF? So, I was away from home and asked my son to go down to the shop and take a look at the bottles and he came back with 75 Argon/25 CO2. So my supplier had accidentally given my wife the wrong bottles when she exchanged them so I called them up and had her take them back. Tried it a few minutes ago, perfect weld. I thought it was me before that. My eyesight isn't getting any better but I've been doing this for almost 50 years and never had weld results like that before.

[rustydodge]

Thank you JODY! Yep years back, guilty as charged Fido’s butt! Got a nice piece of copper buss bar and all clean! Love your segments and Knowledge Brother!

[alexvonbosse]

Thank you Jody for sharing this information!

[bcbloc]

The right tools and procedures usually always makes things go better. 😎

[mr.leftie]

ತುಂಬಾ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿದೆ ಸರ್..ಉತ್ತಮ ಮಾಹಿತಿ .. Iam fron India

[oKeNSchWarZo]

One of my first welding jobs we would use Copper ALL the time to build up and fill in ground out cracks/holes in our work pieces. Never used aluminum though as most of the material we were repairing was also aluminum or an alloy of such. Doing this does help a LOT though for sure.

[humberoestrada]

Thanks, an excellent information Jody

[ohshizzitsyetsi]

I usually save old mig nozzles just cut them in half and bang it flat for copper backing

[ludewigo]

Definitely going to build a little purge box. I think it can also be helpful to backup tacks on stainless steel, or to even build one in a slightly round shape so you are able to backup tacks or small welds on stainless steel pipes.

[danielmartinez-cjdi]

Gosh I learn a lot from this guy. I've got a lot more to learn before I get really good with my powertig.

[metubewot]

Great example there Jody. Thank you for that.

[hoenndpn]

Wow, didn’t think this would appear in my feed considering this was shown in my welding class literally yesterday

[spkrman]

Great video Jody. That has some real world applications. Amazing the difference a backing does. ✔👍