00:00:00:00 - 00:00:08:18 Speaker 1 Hey, guys, I'm Frank Cox. I'm the BBQ Pit Engineer, and this is the SmokerBuilder podcast. Thanks for tuning in and enjoy this episode.

00:00:08:18 - 00:00:27:20 Speaker 1 Brother Alvin says, is it possible to weld carbon steel to stainless steel? The short answer is absolutely yes. I've done that a lot. And actually, in restaurant equipment, that's a common practice because we don't want to build the entire fryer out of stainless.

00:00:27:20 - 00:00:54:19 Speaker 1 We only want the food contact surfaces and the showy parts to be welded to, to have stainless showing. And as a matter of fact, there is certain kinds of stainless that are called, ironized. I want to say they're in the 300 range like a three or something. I can't remember those numbers. I'm not that brilliant. But 316 pops to mind.

00:00:54:21 - 00:01:20:04 Speaker 1 But I don't really know. You might hear other people call it magnetized or magnetic stainless. There is a way to magnetize stainless lightly, even if it doesn't have iron. For instance, Fastenal on their website says that, because of the heat treating process, that their stainless nuts and bolts are magnetized a little bit. In other words, you can pick them up.

00:01:20:04 - 00:01:45:08 Speaker 1 They're not magnetic magnetized, but they they can be like ferrous metal, which will stick to a magnet. You know, while it may not be strong stick, it does still stick. So anyway, yes, you can weld carbon steel to stainless all day long. And as a matter of fact, if you're just doing this on a smoker project, it's completely okay to not use stainless wire.

00:01:45:10 - 00:02:04:07 Speaker 1 While stainless wire would be the best bet, it's you're probably not going to want to go out and buy like a bottle of what we call tri mix, which is a different gas that you got to use for stainless MiG welding. You're probably just going to want to use your, mixed 25 or whatever you got.

00:02:04:09 - 00:02:29:04 Speaker 1 So it's okay to use steel wire and, you know, regular MiG gas, whatever you're going to do. Or you can even get, there's actually some brazing techniques, like silly bronze is one kind of, filler rod. We talk about where you can torch weld if you're just doing some tacks or you have, you have a little bit of, like a small bead.

00:02:29:04 - 00:02:47:16 Speaker 1 You got to run and you want to try your hand at that, or you want to take it. You can use that, silly bronze. It's silica bronze. Or is what the, the alloy is. And, there's of course, different percentages of each thing. You just have to talk to somebody way smarter than me. About that.

00:02:47:20 - 00:03:11:21 Speaker 1 Probably your local welding supply store. The silly bronze will look a lot better. What will happen is, is the weld puddle is going to mix that carbon, that molten, carbon steel into the weld puddle along with the stainless. And so you could get some rust, depending on the situation that would creep up into that stainless piece, whatever it is.

00:03:11:23 - 00:03:29:16 Speaker 1 Contamination, I guess, is what that's called, but it'll hold all day long, so it just won't be stainless anymore. So there you go. Hope that helps, Alvin. And the practice. Like the beads, the heat, all that stuff would be just normal welding. Don't overthink it. Yeah, it's a normal

00:03:30:15 - 00:03:57:01 Speaker 1 Alvin Shane back on the, stainless thing, would you use shield or could you use flux core? I would use shield gas. However, not really sure about the alloys on flux core. I know the 32 TI or whatever the number is. I've got a roll here somewhere. I don't see it handy. But the flux core that I've used in the past is right behind me.

00:03:57:02 - 00:04:20:05 Speaker 1 I think there's this, e 71 TI dash 11 for those guys that care. If you can see the number right there. That's that's what I typically use. In a smaller amp machine like the blue Demon back there, I'll use. Oh, 30 is what I use. And, I just don't even worry about what the alloy is.

00:04:20:05 - 00:04:42:15 Speaker 1 Typically, I just try it out, and if it doesn't get, like, a lot of porosity or something, or if it's not something structural, I really don't pay much attention to it. So I'm not really sure, though, how Flux Core would work. I've always just used shield gas, and if you guys wanted to try to use, stainless MiG wire, you can get little rolls like this.

00:04:42:15 - 00:05:00:08 Speaker 1 It's not really that expensive. The difference is you got to use a different kind of gas. And if you're going to do a lot of that, you'll wind up getting a gas called tri mix. Can't remember what's in it. I have a bottle out there. It sits there and gets my daughter's in the thing because I never use it.

00:05:00:10 - 00:05:16:17 Speaker 1 So, give you an idea, it's probably not worth buying it. But, when we were doing kitchen equipment, we 100% use tri mix and MiG welding every time we could because it was just a lot easier to deal with and dragging a Tig torch in and super cleaning everything and all of that.

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