Cutting Thin Sheet Metal Straight

The illustrations are for a small bracket but i have cut 3 foot long pieces using this method.

Cutting thin sheet metal straight.

Nice tight blade contact. Using tin snips for thin sheets. Open the cutters as wide as you can at the start of each stroke and make long smooth strokes. These photo steps show that it can be done using a utility knife.

Choose between red blue or yellow snips based on the cut direction. Cutting straight lines with an electric saw. Right cutting left cutting and straight cutting snips. Make long strokes for long straight cuts.

Set your saw to straight rather than oscillating if there s a choice. Making detailed cuts with. Using a chisel and hammer is the most basic form of cutting sheet metal. Worked well to cut thin steel.

Extend blade life by keeping the saw s speed slow. Wax your saw blade before cutting sheet metal. 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.

Right and left cutting snips are used for making curved cuts while straight cutting snips make straight cuts. 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. If you use metal shears to cut thin sheet metal such as duct metal it curls and can be difficult to flaten properly.

Long straight cuts are easier to make with large tin snips. Lift the cutoff strip and roll it to the side to prevent it from binding on the tin snips handle.