Cutting Thin Aluminium Sheet

Use a wood cutting saw with carbide tipped blades to cut most aluminum.

Cutting thin aluminium sheet.

Using a softer piece of material such as wood as a backer will allow the chisel to push through the metal and prevent wear on the chisel s tip. Clamp or hold a straightedge or square along the cutting marks and score a line with the tip of a sharp utility knife blade. Mark the start and stopping point of your cut with a grease pencil or some similar implement that marks on sheet metal. Place the metal on a hard surface to score it and on long pieces do the bending with the score place along a sharp edge of a bench and if necessary clamp the fixed piece with a long piece of flat wood to prevent buckling the metal while bending it back and forth.

Align the snips with the line you want to cut with the upper blade of the tin snips touching the sheet metal. Clamp the aluminum down. Then bend the sheet back and forth a few times to snap it. If possible choose a saw blade that creates narrow kerfs the notch or slot made by the saw.

Be the first to share. Sheet aluminium can be cut without the need for a guillotine or tin snips which tend to deform the metal. Before cutting put on a pair of safety goggles and work gloves to prevent injuries. Set the piece of aluminum on a table or over sawhorses and position it so the cutting area has open space underneath it.

How to cut fold sheet aluminium. To cut the sheets of metal rathe. Select a fine toothed blade and don t cut aluminum with a wall thickness of more than 1 4 inch 0 64 cm. And you can use the same technique anytime you need a straight cut on aluminum or other light gauge sheet metal even steel.

Tin snips are primarily used for cutting thin sheet metal like tin aluminum brass and thin gauge stainless steel. A cnc router can cut aluminum but it isn t the ideal tool for hogging out big aerospace parts like wing spars. The price you ll pay for success is slowing things down.