Welding Tips and Tricks

I am looking for some tips/tricks to welding some thin sheetmetal (18ga) lever arms onto a 1/4" shaft. All are small (relative) size but the size disparity of one to the other is pretty great.

If I turn down the settings to accomodate the 18ga, it's hard to penetrate the rod but if I crank it up to penetrate the rod, I burn up the levers. Any suggestions on the best way to weld these together? I have both a MIG and TIG available to me

This is a picture of the final piece:


Not an expert welder by any stretch and this is really testing my skills.

Thanks

Paul

Welcome Paul.

I have been doing quite a lot of thick to thin lately.

Using Tig, what works for me is to use a very sharp electrode and set the amps to something that would be about right for the thick material (all the better to get a puddle going quickly). I then light up on the thick stuff and 'wash' the puddle over to the thin material. So the arc virtually never hovers over the thin stuff - washing to the edge of the thick piece is generally enough to get the two pieces joined with a good strong weld.

All the best with this.



Kym

Silicon bronze is good for this if thats an option.
I've done 0,8mm to 5 mm sheet T joint. Strong enough to be smashed flat with a hammer without failing.

Also if you can use a heat sink on the thin material.

I don't have tig, just mig, so I setup for the larger piece and what I call feather(wash) the weld into the thinner material. So far has worked fine for me.

TIG it, that's what I do. Just run it hot and kind of "flow" the thicker stuff over the thinner stuff, you wan't to get your thick stuff nice and molten then just move the torch over the light stuff and kill the heat, its done fast but it works great.