Cutting Thick Sheet Metal

A handheld cutting tool fitted with a metal cut off wheel will easily cut through sheet.

Cutting thick sheet metal.

Set your saw to straight rather than oscillating if there s a choice. They look like scissors and work fine with sheet metals like brass aluminum tin steel etc. If you ve hit it hard enough the chisel will cut the sheet metal if it s thin enough. There are two ways to cut round ducts.

Choose between red blue or yellow snips based on the cut direction. Extend blade life by keeping the saw s speed slow. First if you want to cut a duct near the middle and use both ends mark and cut the duct before snapping it together. Using a chisel and hammer is the most basic form of cutting sheet metal.

Choose a blade with 20 to 24 tpi teeth per inch for thin metal 10 to 18 tpi for medium thickness metal and about 8. Jigsaws and metal cutting band saws are more work but can make most cuts in light to medium sheet metal. Making detailed cuts with. 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.

Simply line up your chisel along the line you are going to cut and strike the back of it with a hammer. The lower the number the thicker the metal is. A hacksaw can cut sheet metal but its shape limits its turning radius and depth of cut. Such as straight cut snips left cut the right cut etc.

Tin snips or aviation snips are one of the most widely used tools to cut sheet metals. There are some cuts that you can do with decent tin snips. How to cut sheet metal method 1 of 4. They don t cut curves well.

Cutting straight lines with an electric saw. Wax your saw blade before cutting sheet metal. Here are a few tips for cutting metal with a recip saw. Straight cutting compound snips work best for cutting thick or doubled up sheet metal.