How Do You Cut Thin Sheet Metal

Step 2 clamp your steel to a work bench or sawhorse.

How do you cut thin sheet metal.

There are some cuts that you can do with decent tin snips. For thinner gauge metal you may want to use a piece of scrap wood as backing so that the stainless steel sheet does not bend during cutting. In our test it cut through rebar like a hot knife through butter. Using a chisel and hammer is the most basic form of cutting sheet metal.

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. If you use metal shears to cut thin sheet metal such as duct metal it curls and can be difficult to flaten properly. To cut straight lines use an electric saw. Thick using a ferrous metal cutting blade.

The illustrations are for a small bracket but i have cut 3 foot. Such as straight cut snips left cut the right cut etc. Cut steel between 16 gauge and 8 gauge with an electric jigsaw with a metal cutting blade or with a hacksaw. If you ve got a lot of straight cutting to do buy tin snips like the one shown in photo 4.

Simply line up your chisel along the line you are going to cut and strike the back of it with a hammer. You can cut mild steel up to about 3 8 in. If you ve hit it hard enough the chisel will cut the sheet metal if it s thin enough. As you cut one side of the sheet metal will ride up and over the lower jaw.

Tin snips or aviation snips are one of the most widely used tools to cut sheet metals. How to cut thin sheet metal and keep it flat. These photo steps show that it can be done using a utility knife. And the long blades make it easy to cut straight and leave a smooth edge.

Hot metal chips will fly everywhere. Then grip the saw with both hands and push the blade through the metal to cut it. It cuts metal almost as easily as a scissors cuts paper. It may not be an obvious choice but fitted with the right blade a circular saw is a great metal cutting tool.