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Metal folks, a question. Is weldable paint like this one real or is it bs? This one claims to be 50% 316L stainless steel on application (I guess it's more of a coating than a paint in the usual sense, but it works the same way). Does anyone have experience with stuff like this? If so, do you actually weld over the paint and onto it, or do you weld through it to the metal surface below? If anyone knows how this works, please help me out.
Theres a bit of hyperbole to it but its also correct.
Like when welding Zinc coated Steel, you strike the arc on the Zinc, the arc starts, gets hot, melts & burns away the Zinc so the arc now gets to the Steel and you start welding properly.
This paints conductive so you can strike the arc directly on it, unlike normal paint which acts as a insulator, once its burnt away the SS paint, the arc will weld directly onto the actual steel metal.
The SS paint will add some Nickel & Chrome into the weld but most of the time thats a good thing.
You still need to protect the weld afterwards by respraying that SS paint back on it.
In the video you can see where the paint burnt back to, it seems easy to wire brush it back ( some paints pull back & thicken, bubble & char & you have to scrape or sand that off before repainting it )
I'm impressed with the paint and think it will have many uses. Spray on Zinc is only so good,
The price is likely to be sky high, but viable in the industry.
Weldable paint...hmm...I haven't used the paint, but I've been using 'weld thru' primers in the shop for years...:cool:
yes there is the one we use on boilers is called solar flux
Friends, especially Eesakiwi, many thanks for your responses, I have just found them. Eesakiwi, a question for you:
Here, by Zinc-coated, I guess you mean zinc-plated or zinc-dipped, right? Or do you mean so-called zinc-rich paint? That is supposed to be 90% zinc on application, but I don't belive zinc paint is weldable?Quote:
Originally Posted by eesakiwi
In the case of STEEL-IT, it says the paint is 50% stainless steel on drying. I assume the other 50% is all that organic stuff (polyurethane), which is what I assume burns away when you weld on it, which the steel just hangs on. Am I right?
Thanks agains!
Hi DiamondN, I notice that it specifically says on this page: "STEEL-IT is no wannabe “weldable primer” bs." A pretty strong statement, no? Maybe it's really different.Quote:
Originally Posted by DiamondN