Making a metal yard sign for my wife’s birthday. I’ve already cut out the design from 18 gauge mild steel and have 3/8 round stock I’m planning to use for stakes. Any recommendations on type and settings to weld the round stock to the sheet metal?
I’m signed off on both MIG and TIG and have enough material to do some practicing before the final piece.
Thank you in advance!
Use the settings for the 18 gauge steel to weld it to your stake. If you have trouble blowing through you can spend more time on the 3/8 portion of steel & then wet it over to the 18 gauge. With practice you can get it.
Another option would be to weld a thicker piece of metal at the edge behind the 18ga as a backer. This may give you a better place to weld onto the round stock.
Either way, make sure you have enough welded material that will be able to withstand winds and rain.
Good luck!
To expand on this, If you are blowing through, you can try using aluminum specifically to help mitigate it as a backing block. It won’t stick readily compared to a steel backing block
There is a nice large block in the welding area for this purpose!
I’d weld on L-shaped tabs, then weld the round stock into the corner between the tab and the sign (or just onto the tab). If you drilled small holes into the face of the sign, welded the tab through those holes, then ground the result flat on the face, you’d have a solid connection.
I have a couple of trains thought on this.
Usually when you’re welding two thicknesses of metal together, you generally set the welder on the setting for the thinnest metal. In your case, the 18ga. You shouldn’t blow through unless you’re moving your puddle too slow. (Ask me how I know, lol)
I also agree with @HankCowdog but in my experience when dealing with the thinner Metals, you’ll still need to go back through and put some tack welds on the back side because on metal that thin, the welds will be too thin and easily break. I had that issue when I made a coat hanger with a 14 gauge backplate and 12 gauge hooks.
That being said, it’s 18 gauge therefore all you need to use tacks instead of full solid bead welds because a full solid bead will cause warpage.
My suggestion would be to drill some small holes in the front to get the alignment right and hold it in place and then tacks on the back every inch to inch and a half.
That’s just how I would do it.
I would loose the solid stock all together and go with the smallest thin wall square tube I could find, 11 ga. will weld to 18ga a lot better than 3/8" solid round. less likely to bend and will resist rotation in the ground a lot better than solid round stock.