Best Way To Cut Sheet Metal Straight

Place the sheet metal on top of the workbench and lay out your pattern using a tape measure pencil and straightedge.

Best way to cut sheet metal straight. If your project requires curved cuts make an easy economical and adjustable. If a straight line is required it is best to shear flat metal in a metal shear. There is no perfect or best way to cut sheetmetal materials. Set your saw to straight rather than oscillating if there s a choice.

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. They don t cut curves well. Standard straight pattern tin snips. Choose between red blue or yellow snips based on the cut direction.

A handheld cutting tool fitted with a metal cut off wheel will easily cut through sheet. A stationary or hand shear is a very good approach to delicate detail work. Using a straight edge clamped to the edge of the bench is also a good tip to cut thin metal precisely. There are two ways to cut round ducts.

Using your power tool ensure you re up against the straight edge and can follow along the. The duckbill bladed tin snip is better for cutting in tighter curves but the tapered design of the blade makes it less robust for cutting thicker gauged sheets. If you ve hit it hard enough the chisel will cut the sheet metal if it s thin enough. 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.

Different methods of cutting metal work best in different situations. Using a chisel and hammer is the most basic form of cutting sheet metal. Cutting straight lines with an electric saw. How to cut sheet metal method 1 of 4.

Using tin snips for thin sheets. Making detailed cuts with. Simply line up your chisel along the line you are going to cut and strike the back of it with a hammer. The normal blade or straight pattern blade is best for making long straight cuts.

Wax your saw blade before cutting sheet metal. First if you want to cut a duct near the middle and use both ends mark and cut the duct before snapping it together. Straight cutting compound snips work best for cutting thick or doubled up sheet metal.