Does anyone know where to get small quantities of stainless welding rod?

Phillip Patton

Phillip Patton

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Jul 25, 2005
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I thought Harbor freight carried it, but I haven't seen it lately.
Grainger has it, but you have to buy like 20 pounds, and I only need 3 or 4 rods.

Thanks,
 
Phillip,
Most hardware stores carry small packages if you ask, and many carry stainless because you can weld it on ac.
Matt
 
Phillip,

Go to your local welding supplier. They sell it by the pound...so you can buy as much or as little as needed.

oops... that's assuming that you are looking for TIG rod. If you are looking for Stick electrodes...then you'll probably have to buy a full package....

Anyway...check with the local welding suppliers..they'll be listed in the yellow pages under "welding supplies". Fort Wayne should have several listed simplydue to the heavy around the area.

Good Luck.

-Rob
 
Try doing what I did when I wanted stainless wire for making fishing lures with. Look in the phone book for Steel Fabricators and go round to the workshop and ask the guys there if they can spare a little.
I ended up with enough stainless wire to keep me going for years for the sake of a couple of quid (not many dollars) into the charity box on the office counter. ;)
 
Phillip,

What size and type of wire do you need? TIG or stick, 308 or 316, is it for welding or another purpose?
 
There are "National Welders" everywhere around here. I get stainless TIG rod in small quantities there.
 
You can always email or PM me also, If I ain't got it in my shop I can get small quantities of most rod for nothing.
 
Guys,
Thanks for all the suggestions. I don't know the difference between MIG and TIG, but I do know that I use a stick welder. :)

T Blade, I think 1/8" would be about perfect, but anything around there would work. Probably 308. What I'm welding is 304.
If anyone would like to trade a few sticks for a set or two of osage orange scales, I'd be happy to oblige. :D
 
I have a bunch of 1/8" x 12" (maybe 8") down in my shop. It's 304 but if you need a few, they're yours.
 
If you are welding stainless to carbon steel your best bet is 309 it is an excellent all around stainless rod and for most welding of knife application thicknesses I would suggest 3/32. Some is on the way to your PO box.

Tig is a method of welding where the heat is supplied by an arc established between a piece of tungsten rod and the parts to be welded, the arc is sheilded with gas (usually argon) the filler rod is bare rod and is feed by hand into the weld. It is great brecause one can have a lot of control on the placement of the high heat and you can push the metal around with the arc force and you are not constantly adding new metal like stick and mig. Will work with almost any metal although some metals like aluminium require a high frequency power source for the arc. Great control and some guys can actually weld foil ticknesses with a good setup. Tungsten in Inert Gas TIG

Mig is Metal in Inert Gas usually a wire feed set up.
 
ib2v4u said:
....... Tungsten in Inert Gas TIG
Mig is Metal in Inert Gas usually a wire feed set up.
Click to expand...

These acronyms are actually no longer used in code books and other places, trade people still use them as they sound good, instead of using their real acronyms, instead of TIG they use GTAW (Gas Tungsten Arc Welding) or MIG, now GMAW (Gas Metal Arc Welding). The newer names are used because straight argon is not the only sheilding gas, some very reactive gases can be used. I've welded a lot on copper/nickel using 95/5. 95% argon, 5% hydrogen, this really lights up the puddle. A lot of Carbon Dioxide is used in MIG welding. These reactive gases mixed with the inert gases really change the weld puddle characteristics.

Just my 2 cents. :D
 
Very true, just wanted to give him the idea behind each name.

Phillip, I tossed some 1/8th in with the 3/32 so take your pick.
 
TIG & MIG are still used so much, it is just that they roll of your tongue nice and easy:jerkit: . Heck there's probably a lot of welders out there that would look at you weird if you refered to the process they're welding as GMAW :confused:
 
Thanks for all the info, guys. And thank you, ib2v4u, for sending me some rods!
I sure appreciate it. What I need it for is a rack I'm making to hold blades in my heat treat oven. I made one out of mild steel angle iron, but of course it flaked away to nothing, so I got some 304 ss angle of off ebay. Should last a lot longer.
GMAW and GTAW, I was familiar with. I didn't realize they were the same thing as MIG and TIG. Thanks for the explanation. :)
 
I put some 1/8" in with some 3/32" so sort them out before you start. Hope the post office doesn't beat them up to badly. Maybe you will toss in a bit of that osage orange when you get the A6 damascus done. No pressure or hurry.
 
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