Topic: Newbie (welding) question ...

[Zane]

Is it possible to weld regular steel to stainless steel ?

(I've made a little "clock" housing for my voltmeter, and the base of the thing is stainless.  It fits to a small, regular steel bracket between the two, larger gauges. It will fit to that little bracket with a nut and bolt, but, when I was looking at it today I thought it would look a lot cleaner and more professional with a weld at that place, instead of a nut.)

If welding the two together is not possible I suppose I could remake the bracket part out of stainless.  (Or live with the nut and bolt.)

[Quail "Owner of the comfortable k8"]

Yes I do it all the time.  Tig is the best but they make good arc SS rods also.  Use a SS rod. If you can't find one or want a great rod let me know. Quails@juno.com

[Zane]

Great!  Thanks "Q".  I'm pleased because making the bracket out of regular steel was so much easier for me than I imagine hacking it out of stainless would be.....

I have a friend who recently bought a TIG welding machine.  Tig welding is pretty fine work, from what I can tell, and my little job should play right to my friends strong suit, I think.  I know he has some stainless rods because he was grumbling a bit about the cost.

Thanks again for taking the time to answer my question, and thanks for your kind offer of a SS welding rod.

[scunny]

Zane, where are you going to connect your volt gauge?

[Zane]

I was thinking I would connect it in the headlight bucket.  There is a (brown) connector in there that is free.  (According to my wiring diagram, it's designed that way too - the empty plug, I mean.)

I should say that I've already had it mounted (in a very jimmy-rigged sort of way) for a few weeks now.  There was a spare way on the black connector in the bucket, so I guess it comes out as:

green > to the instrument gauge's ground
brown > to the empty brown connector
black  >  ganged in with the other two instrument's black 3 way splitter.

The brown is for the bulb in the voltmeter and the black is for the voltmeter itself.  It all seems to work well - as in so far so good....

Do you think that it's a mistake scunny - the way I've done it?

[scunny]

I was just wondering, if you want to use the volt gauge to check on the charging of your battery, can it be done wired from any place in the loom or would it have to be wired direct to the battery. Wiser heads will know.

[CB500_k2]

I think that in this application JB Weld would work just fine.

[n9viw]

In a fit of pique, I've welded stainless to mild steel with 6013 arc rods. It worked. Yes, they rusted, but it's my own fault for not painting them afterward. 

[Quail "Owner of the comfortable k8"]

Great! Thanks "Q". I'm pleased because making the bracket out of regular steel was so much easier for me than I imagine hacking it out of stainless would be.....

I have a friend who recently bought a TIG welding machine. Tig welding is pretty fine work, from what I can tell, and my little job should play right to my friends strong suit, I think. I know he has some stainless rods because he was grumbling a bit about the cost.

Thanks again for taking the time to answer my question, and thanks for your kind offer of a SS welding rod.

  I use a wire that comes in a spool from harbor freight. It is not a welding wire it is like a mech. wire. works good on tig.

[Zane]

So here's how it came out.  I opted for the full on welding rather than the JB Weld route.  Just because of the way I planned it out, I didn't have enough faith in the JB - I think there would have been just too much stress on the join.  I like JB Weld though, and use it often.

My friend's a pretty good welder I think.  From the top you can't tell where the regular steel ends and the stainless begins.  I took this shot as I was fitting the meter into it's housing.  After I did the fitting part, I painted the regular steel black, and left the stainless bare.  Then I gave it enough of a polish to come close to the chrome on the other two gauge pots.  I think it all looks pretty decent, and it seems to work very well too (voltmeter wise).