Welding Stainless Steel Exhaust Pipe

For a corrosion resistant completed weld use one of the 400 series stainless steel wires such as a1490.

Welding stainless steel exhaust pipe. Ferritic stainless steel is the cheapest form of steel and hence it is favored for manufacturing automotive exhaust components. Work done on a chevy s10 pickup truck. Firstly tig welding has zero tolerance of dirt oils paint and rust. Stainless exhaust is sometimes made from 304 stainless but there are also quite a few exhaust components that use 400 series stainless like 409.

The widely used stainless steel is the type 304 stainless steel as they are also referred to as surgical stainless steel as it contains a maximum of 20 of chromium and 10 of nickel. So first thoroughly clean the tubing and ensure no dirt or oil residue is left. In particular this technique is used for welding exhaust pipes made from alloys such as stainless steel. Its definitely not a good idea.

But if your car has a stainless steel exhaust pipe then you better use small spool for stainless steel wire and use regular mig welder machine and this is how to mig weld stainless steel exhaust pipe. When tig welding exhaust pipe care must be taken. Most of the popular welding processes can be used but i prefer gmaw because it works well on custom exhaust systems for my high school students hot rods. Andy phillips shows how to weld exhaust pipe and the tools needed to prep the metal and weld it together.