Stainless conducts heat about one third as well as carbon steel. That means the heat you put in stays put in. On 16ga 304, an unbroken weld will buckle the panel within an inch of the joint.
Five techniques that work
- Skip welding — 1″ on, 2″ off, then return-pass to fill
- Copper backing bar — pulls heat through the joint into a sink
- Pulsed TIG — peak/background ratio at 4:1, 60 PPS minimum
- Pre-clamping with strongbacks — restrain, don’t correct after
- Reverse-side argon purge — prevents sugaring and reduces re-work
You can’t grind distortion out of stainless. You can only prevent it.
For panels above 11ga, the rules change — heat input becomes the constraint and you can stitch continuously without buckling. The thin-gauge work is where craftsmanship still beats the procedure manual.