Question About Stainless Steel Welding Rod

[Ken Scharabok]

I have several references on welding but cannot find this in them.

What is the basic difference between 312-16 and 308L stainless steel welding rod?

Ken Scharabok

[Steve in Ohio]

Stainless steel alloys usually have a chromium content of at least 10%.These metals are grouped into three classes depending on their crystal structure(302,304,308,316)martensitic (410,and 416)Austenitic grades with lower carbon content(304Lor316L) Thats why you may see rod with 316L,lower carbon content.Most food grade piping & tanks and such are 316L.
J.W. harris has some really good products for Stainless,and dissimilar metals.
When ever I repair Stainless with stick rods I use "L series" because it keeps cracking from causing problems.............

[owhn]

What is the basic difference between 312-16 and 308L stainless steel welding rod?

Assuming we are talking about stick welding (SMAW):The first three digits refer to the alloy type
312 vs 308.

The presence of two digits after the hyphen in 312-16 have specific meaning.

The first digit is either a 1 or a 2. A one means that the electrodes 5/32 or smaller are useable in all positions and larger are useable in only in flat and horizontal positions; a 2 indicates that all sizes are useable only in the flat and horizontal positions

The second digit is either a 5, 6 or 7. A 5 means the electrodes are suitable for use with DCEP (Direct Current Electrode Positive); a 6 or 7 refers to electrodes suitable for either AC or DECP.

So -16 means (for 5/32 and smaller) all postions and AC/DECP




The letter L in 308L refers to the control of carbon concentration to a specified lower level... while still complying with the chemistry of 308 stainless.Were there an H instead,it would mean that the electrode has a higher carbon level, possibly not consistent with the chemistry of the parent 308 class.


Some vendor information (taken randomly from one of many vendors) has information as to applications and parent metal chemistry:

http://www.jwharris.com/images/pdf/312-16.pdf
http://www.jwharris.com/images/pdf/308l-16.pdf

I hope this addresses your question.

owhn

[retire2$]

A good site for all welding type information is AWS.org/forum. Click on shop talk to ask questions.

[Ken Scharabok]

In your opinion, which is the better overall rod for non-stress welding? I use stainless predominately for tack welding and for short welds, such as when I make up blacksmithing tongs.

Ken Scharabok

[Steve in Ohio]

I use rods from J.W. Harris,called Super Missleweld.This stuff has a high tensile strength,runs like Stainless and works great on dissimilar metals.So if what you are doing don't have a Stainless base metal I think you would like the results with this rod.BTW any time I weld mild steel with the TIG machine I use 308 S.S.filler wire........

[Ken Scharabok]

As I noted, I primarily use SS rod for tack welds, I like that it arcs when it touches. I can then overweld with 7018. I also use it for short welds when I weld together the blacksmith tongs I sell over eBay. Makes a pretty weld for that purpose.

Ken S. in WC TN

[moopups]

Try a 6022 ac rod for an easy arc also, I build ornamental and decorative house fixtures with them, they will tack a galvanized sheet of roof metal to a railroad iron, flat, smooth, and minimal slag. About $70.00 for a 50 # box.