In this episode mark from natoli panel creations discusses some tips and concepts behind hand cutting sheet metal with tin snips electric shears and a guil.
Cutting tiny shapes in sheet metal.
Parting is that a cutoff can be nestled perfectly on the sheet metal due to its geometry.
Install one of the cutoff cutters.
Instead of using a pencil a magic marker or soapstone kevin caron suggests.
The cutters are offset below the handle so you can keep your cutting sheet metal hand above the work and the compound action allows you to cut thicker material with less effort.
You can cut mild steel up to about 3 8 in.
Align the snips with the line you want to cut with the upper blade of the tin snips touching the sheet metal.
With cutoffs the cutting of sheet metal can be done over one path at a time and with partings the shape can not be nestled precisely.
Cut metal with your circular saw.
In our test it cut through rebar like a hot knife through butter.
Simply line up your chisel along the line you are going to cut and strike the back of it with a hammer.
If you ve hit it hard enough the chisel will cut the sheet metal if it s thin enough.
The nibbler is a tool that offers a lot of control over the cut but at the expense of cut width.
Place the dremel cutter on the cutting line perpendicularly to the sheet metal.
Thick using a ferrous metal cutting blade.
Mark the cut line with adhesive tape and draw your cut lines.
Clamp the sheet metal in place on your work table to hold it in place while you work.
It may not be an obvious choice but fitted with the right blade a circular saw is a great metal cutting tool.
The other tools mainly make round holes and to use them you start by drilling a small pilot hole.
Using a chisel and hammer is the most basic form of cutting sheet metal.
Green snips are designed to cut clockwise curves and red snips to cut counterclockwise curves.
Loosen up the drill head with the provided wrench.
Each cut punches out a tiny piece of the sheet metal and the process is repeated.
Hot metal chips will fly everywhere.
Sheet metal cutters and nibblers can be used for cutting irregular shapes and for cutting up big sheets but they cannot cut holes less than 25 to 50mm across.
The nibbler shown here is hand operated though drill powered electric and pneumatic versions are also common.
Compound snips also called aviation snips are color coded.
When cutting a thin piece of metal precisely you need to make sure to start with a good line and a good mark to follow.
