Good source for stainless tubing in different radii?

[Revved]

Originally Posted by Solid LT1

Performance tube in So-Cal and Columbia Mandrel Bending in Oregon are 2 of the most cost effective suppliers of mild steel and 304 stainless steel mandrel bends, if I'm doing something weird.....Burns Stainless but, sit down when getting quote from Burns. If your doing a lot of stainless, you will want to learn about back purging your welds even Solar Flux wont get the job done, only proper back purging. Burns has some good articles on welding stainless, if you using 316 or 321 I hope your a skilled welder, that stuff isnt fun to weld.

I bought the 6" From Burns at nearly $60 a piece and the rest from Columbia at about $20 piece. Is the Burns stuff nicer... sure... but I cant find anything wrong with the stuff from Columbia either at 1/3" of the price. I'm going to ceramic coat the headers when I'm done so I don't really care about the visual of the material.

I've started tacking it up but killed my last bandsaw blade not realizing my new bandsaw had a high and low gear... I thought I had it turned all the way down but apparently not!! New blades just showed up an hour ago so I'll jump back on it today or Monday.

I was going to start thinking of a way to back purge the tubing when I do start TIG'ing it up. My TIG work has come a long way in the last two years so I'm functional but not artist level. When I bought the new shop building the previous owner left a large tank of Nitrogen- That can be used to back purge right? I haven't priced Nitrogen vs Argon since basically I'll be dumping it on the floor so I don't know which is more cost effective... I know it cost my $50 the other day to exchange my tall Argon tank.

If anyone has picks of a setup they've used to back purge tubing please post it up!

Thanks guys!

Originally Posted by GregWeld

304 is the best choice for "normal" headers --- 321 is used for "turbo" or really high temp applications and then you'd use 347 filler rod.

Good to know... I'll be starting on the Roadster Shop chassis 65 Fastback in a couple months and that is getting a TT Coyote. Everything I've bought for this project was 304