I am ramping up my project again (after a couple of years) and will be fabricating hot-side stuff from scratch. I had planned to use mild steel as I can MIG that myself and materials are cheap(er). I ran in to a guy selling a large lot of 321 Stainless stuff on the cheap (this is leftover materials from his project) and based on what I see out there re 321 stainless prices and the volume of material he is selling I think that I could probably build the bulk of the headers out of the stuff he is selling for about the same materials cost as mild. So... A couple of questions.

1) The stuff he is selling is 2nd hand steel - aparantly he took a few sets of used NASCAR headers and cut them up to build his stuff. Does this present any issue?
2) Does 321 weld significantly differently than 304? I know that I am going to have to clean the heck out of the mating surfaces - but can this stuff just be TIG'd together or am I going to have to seal and back-fill the tubes with gas etc... I have a friend that is a very skilled fabricator/TIG guy - I know he works mostly in mild and sometimes 304 stainless - not sure how much time he has welding 321 and if it is radically different I'd want to know.

So - basically - everything that I read seems to indicate that 321 is good stuff - but I am not sure if it makes sense to take on the hassle of using this stuff - even if the price is right. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance...



PS - I didn't see a better forum for a header question - if I missed something please move the thread or let me know and I'll delete and re-post.

 

Bump - anyone?