O/A welding 20 gauge steel?

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could use some good advice. i'm try to weld a ribbon of 20 gauge mild steel around a flat piece of the same gauge to make a box for a neon clock project I'm working on. the welds are all 90 degree outside corners. I was hoping to fusion weld but am getting too much panel distortion and adding filler rod is making things worse. The clock is aprox. 2 ft. tall (making about 8ft. weld bead) and the ribbon is 4" wide. I'm using a small smith aircraft torch and the smallest tip I could find (aw201). oh & I am kind of a novice welder. Is what I am trying to do impossible? are there tricks to reduce or eliminate the distortion. Thanks
Reply:probably going to have to stitch it together with a lot of very short welds letting the metal cool in between kinda like welding auto body panels. Weld an inch and move down a foot or so and weld another inch until you've gone all the way around then make sure the start is cool and go around again till the whole thing is welded up. Also make sure your torch is set right, try smaller filler wire. If you still find it impossible you could try to find someone with a tig welder that might be willing to help.
Reply:eventually i would like to make these out of aluminum and get a tig, but i would like to make a couple of prototypes out of steel and learn the craft of welding before that kind of investment. Is there an alternative to moistbestos? or maybe some kind of heat sink would help? What would be the recommended torch settings? thanks
Reply:IMHO, you're in for a lot of frustration.  Why not bend the box from a single sheet so that only the 4" corners need to be welded . . . or have a sheet metal shop make it for you?  With a little more work,the corners could be designed to be spot welded, or soldered.  Then you'd have no distortion.  There's an inexpensive 3-in-1 brake, shear and slip roll you can buy that would be perfect for the material you're using.  They're sold by Northern, Harbor Freight, MSC and probably others.Dynasty 300DXSmith He/Ar gas mixerMM350PHobart Handler 120Smith LW7, MW5, AW1A
Reply:the boxes are asymmetrical in shape and some sides have a radius so a brake wont work.
Reply:braze uses less heat...........