Cutting Thick Sheet Metal

Using tin snips for thin sheets.

Cutting thick sheet metal. A hacksaw can cut sheet metal but its shape limits its turning radius and depth of cut. Extend blade life by keeping the saw s speed slow. A handheld cutting tool fitted with a metal cut off wheel will easily cut through sheet. Tin snips or aviation snips are one of the most widely used tools to cut sheet metals.

Making detailed cuts with. First if you want to cut a duct near the middle and use both ends mark and cut the duct before snapping it together. 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. Cutting straight lines with an electric saw.

Choose between red blue or yellow snips based on the cut direction. Most sheet metal cutting tools are limited to 16 gauge and thinner 14 gauge is still sheet metal but in common forms 11 gauge while technically sheet metal is 1 8 thick and not really sheet metal for the purposes of this article so we will focus on 16 gauge and thinner. If you ve hit it hard enough the chisel will cut the sheet metal if it s thin enough. They look like scissors and work fine with sheet metals like brass aluminum tin steel etc.

They don t cut curves well. There are two ways to cut round ducts. Here are a few tips for cutting metal with a recip saw. The lower the number the thicker the metal is.

There are some cuts that you can do with decent tin snips. How to cut sheet metal method 1 of 4. Simply line up your chisel along the line you are going to cut and strike the back of it with a hammer. Set your saw to straight rather than oscillating if there s a choice.

Wax your saw blade before cutting sheet metal. Straight cutting compound snips work best for cutting thick or doubled up sheet metal. Jigsaws and metal cutting band saws are more work but can make most cuts in light to medium sheet metal. Using a chisel and hammer is the most basic form of cutting sheet metal.