Cutting A Straight Line In 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.

Cutting a straight line in sheet metal.

They don t cut curves well. This may be a no brainer to most of you but i had to do a lot of repetitive cutting of sheet steel and was looking for the fastest way to do it. Slitting usually produces a burr. This same idea i decided to take to sheet metal when using the scissor shears.

When cutting a thin piece of metal precisely you need to make sure to start with a good line and a good mark to follow. Align the snips with the line you want to cut with the upper blade of the tin snips touching the sheet metal. Instead of using a pencil a magic marker or soapstone kevin caron suggests. Clamp the sheet metal in place on your work table to hold it in place while you work.

If your project requires cutting a hole in the center of sheet metal draw it on the metal as you would any other cut line. There are two ways to cut round ducts. An well known trick when cutting with your plasma cutter is to clamp a metal straight edge to the metal so the arc is directly over your cut line. Then create a pilot hole within the penciled circle using a power drill.

Tin snips are primarily used for cutting thin sheet metal like tin aluminum brass and thin gauge stainless steel. Slitting is a shearing process in which the sheet metal is cut by two opposing circular blades like a can opener. The circular sheet metal cutters can be driven or the work may be pulled through idle cutters.