Best Way To Cut Sheet Metal Straight With Hand Tools

Cut metal with your circular saw.

Best way to cut sheet metal straight with hand tools. This tool is a must have if you do any metal work at home. For most applications it is necessary to file and clean up the edges left by a snip. Hot metal chips will fly everywhere. For smaller jobs when you want to cut metal with more flexibility than by hand a nibbler drill attachment has a place for professional results for intricate metalworking cuts on sheet metal.

Such as straight cut snips left cut the right cut etc. Make long strokes for long straight cuts. If you want to cut circles as well as doing straight cuts a cheaper alternative to a dedicated nibbler tool is a nibbler drill attachment it is a great alternative for diy ers. 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.

Use hand shears to cut metal hand shears are popular tools that are used to cut metal and it is the simplest way of cutting metal sheets. On the corrogated tin you have to follow the contours of the metal and then it cuts fine. Cheap compared to a nibbler. Open the cutters as wide as you can at the start of each stroke and make long smooth strokes.

Long straight cuts are easier to make with large tin snips. There are some cuts that you can do with decent tin snips. Aviation snip is a term applied to the higher end form of this sheet metal cutting tool which comes in 3 basic varieties allowing for straight left hand curved and right hand curved cuts. Thick using a ferrous metal cutting blade.

Faster than a nibbler for straight cuts. Lift the cutoff strip and roll it to the side to prevent it from binding on the tin snips handle. You can cut mild steel up to about 3 8 in. To cut straight lines use an electric saw.

In our test it cut through rebar like a hot knife through butter. They are also called tin snips and available in different versions. Today i ll go over three different tools you can use to cut sheet metal and plate. You can find scissor like hand shears designed with thinner blades and shaped well to help you achieve certain cuts.

It may not be an obvious choice but fitted with the right blade a circular saw is a great metal cutting tool. This machine is very fast and cuts clean. Perfect for quickly cutting metal roofing that is hidden under a ridge or flashing. If you don t have the ability to that then it s difficult to do so with tool.

Tin snips or aviation snips are one of the most widely used tools to cut sheet metals. Prior to using this tool i cut by hand with tin snips. Shears are a cheap tool that can quickly cut sheets of corrugated metal in straight lines with little effort.