Choosing the right joining technology and configuration for thin metal sheets is challenging, if only distortion inducing options are available. Welding over the face side in lap configuration enables to join even thin sheets of stainless steel without distortion despite its low thermal conductivity. Pulsed laser welding of a stack of three stainless and high-carbon steel sheets in lap configuration over the face side in a single pass is a challenging task for producing the “digital feeler gauge” and is compared with common lap configuration. The experiments are carried out with metal sheets of thicknesses from 0.03 mm up to 1.00 mm and pulse durations between 0.3 ms and 2.0 ms. Afterwards metallographic cross sections are correlated with bending and peeling tests. It turns out that tem-pered high-carbon steel withstands bending, but not peeling and stainless steel shows high peeling resistance.