RE: Toroid made easy

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Original poster: Ian Macky <ian@xxxxxxxxx>

Hi Al...

>         Could you elaborate?  Stainless steel TIG welds better (easier) than
> any other material.  When you weld it, it melts.  After it cools it is
> contiguous stainless steel with the original adjacent areas. You can easily
> spin, or form a blank created by two equal pieces welded and ground smooth
> with a seam down the middle and never know that the blank wasn't sheared
> from a single sheet.  Nothing is ruined. A welded area on stainless steel
> has discoloration (oxidation?) from the heat.  This is easily removed either
> chemically or mechanically.  So what do you mean when you say the stainless
> steel is "ruined" when it gets red hot?

The welding class I took covered everything, and started with flame (welding,
brazing, and braze welding)-- it's with flame you're going to ruin SS, and
yes we were taught if you over-heated it red hot it was ruined and to throw
it away and try again; some visiting "guest welder" who did trick SS welding
of some sort confirmed that.  I wasn't thinking TIG when I made the comment
about heating SS, since TIG heating is of course very localized-- the joy of
a 10,000 degree arc-- so that comment was confusing, sorry.

TIG welding SS is a pain just because of the little bead-- you have to use a
magnifier to see what you're doing-- (at least everyone in my class did)--
and the finer the bead the more obvious any hand twitches, so it's tougher
to do good work, tho obviously it can be done.  Hated SS.  Aluminum was SO
much easier-- big fat bead, easy to see (even if super reflective), minor
hand motion swamped by the size of the bead, so easier to get good results.

Not sure what exactly is "ruined" in the SS, my metalurgy is faded, but this
is what we were taught, and it was one of the top 3 welding schools in the
country.  If you're ever heated a piece of SS to red hot and let it cool, it
looks like garbage afterwards.

--ian