Cutting 30 Gauge Sheet Metal

Hot metal chips will fly.

Cutting 30 gauge sheet metal. In our test it cut through rebar like a hot knife through butter. Then create a pilot hole within the penciled circle using a power drill. Most sheet metal cutting tools are limited to 16 gauge and thinner 14 gauge is still sheet metal but in common forms 11 gauge while technically sheet metal is 1 8 thick and not really sheet metal for the purposes of this article so we will focus on 16 gauge and thinner. Using a chisel and hammer is the most basic form of cutting sheet metal.

Simply line up your chisel along the line you are going to cut and strike the back of it with a hammer. Thick using a ferrous metal cutting blade. And just like wires the answer is derived in the unit of the gauge. Features a variable speed trigger to smoothly control the metal shear during operation.

Start by taping both sides of the sheet metal directly over the line you want to cut and clamp the metal to a work station so it doesn t move. Bauer 14 gauge 5 amp heavy duty metal shears have a three blade cutter head that shears sheet metal as thick as 14 gauge without deforming. The lower the number the thicker the metal is. About sheet metal gauge.

The tool that is used to measure this thickness is called sheet metal gauge. The equivalent thicknesses differ for each gauge size standard which were developed based on the weight of the sheet for a given material. If you ve hit it hard enough the chisel will cut the sheet metal if it s thin enough. If your project requires cutting a hole in the center of sheet metal draw it on the metal as you would any other cut line.

Whenever it comes to cutting any sheet metal the first and foremost concern is how thick the cut will be. You can cut mild steel up to about 3 8 in. The head swivels 360 degrees to cut straight round or irregular holes in sheet metal. To cut straight lines use an electric saw.

In most of the world sheet metal thickness is consistently specified in millimeters. It may not be an obvious choice but fitted with the right blade a circular saw is a great metal cutting tool. Commonly used steel sheet metal ranges from 30 gauge to about 7 gauge. The method you choose to cut sheet metal depends on the thickness of the metal and the type of cut you plan to make.

The larger the gauge number the thinner the metal. Sheet metal gauge size chart gauge or gage sizes are numbers that indicate the thickness of a piece of sheet metal with a higher number referring to a thinner sheet.