Cutting Thick Sheet Metal

Using tin snips for thin sheets.

Cutting thick sheet metal. The lower the number the thicker the metal is. For a cleaner cut put a strip of masking tape on the top and bottom of the sheet to keep chips from scratching the material. Jigsaws and metal cutting band saws are more work but can make most cuts in light to medium sheet metal. Simply line up your chisel along the line you are going to cut and strike the back of it with a hammer.

A hacksaw can cut sheet metal but its shape limits its turning radius and depth of cut. Using a chisel and hammer is the most basic form of cutting sheet metal. Choose between red blue or yellow snips based on the cut direction. Set your saw to straight rather than oscillating if there s a choice.

How to cut sheet metal method 1 of 4. To prolong blade life rub wax along the length of the blade. Tin snips or aviation snips are one of the most widely used tools to cut sheet metals. Making detailed cuts with.

They don t cut curves well. Such as straight cut snips left cut the right cut etc. Straight cutting compound snips work best for cutting thick or doubled up sheet metal. There are two ways to cut round ducts.

Extend blade life by keeping the saw s speed slow. Here are a few tips for cutting metal with a recip saw. They look like scissors and work fine with sheet metals like brass aluminum tin steel etc. A handheld cutting tool fitted with a metal cut off wheel will easily cut through sheet.

If you ve hit it hard enough the chisel will cut the sheet metal if it s thin enough. 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. Cutting straight lines with an electric saw. There are some cuts that you can do with decent tin snips.