To cut the sheets of metal rathe.
How to clean cut aluminum sheet.
Either way the main problem you want to avoid is clogging the blade.
This jet of water eats away at the metal and leaving a clean smooth edge.
With the aid of a ruler or yardstick draw a straight line between the two.
After a few wiggles the sheet will fracture along the cut line leaving a clean break as shown in the above photos.
It is stupidly fast and it leaves a nice clean cut if you can hold it.
Harder media like silica sand tungsten carbide aluminum oxide and cold chilled copper slag will produce very clean metal.
Then bend the sheet back and forth a few times to snap it.
Flip the sheet over and repeat.
With care and patience full size sheets of aluminium can be cut using this method.
Clamp or hold a straightedge or square along the cutting marks and score a line with the tip of a sharp utility knife blade.
If you use metal shears to cut thin sheet metal such as duct metal it curls and can be difficult to flaten properly.
Snip the two sides.
Place the fracture line over the edge of a table and bend the overhang slightly downwards.
Apply 5 to 6 small spurts on both the bottom and top halves of the blade.
Probably the preferred method for cutting intricate or thick aluminum the water jet focus a very thin stream of water mixed with abrasives at extraordinary pressures and very high speed into the sheet metal.
They do not remove deep pitted rust very well if at all but they do avoid the warping hazard.
These photo steps show that it can be done using a utility knife.
This is actually one of my preferred ways to cut aluminum.
You can use the same trick to cut metal studs.
Wd 40 is the standard lubricant when cutting aluminum.
Mark the start and stopping point of your cut with a grease pencil or some similar implement that marks on sheet metal.
Since you ll be cutting metal on metal you want to lubricate it to prevent sparks and slippage.
The illustrations are for a small bracket but i have cut 3 foot long pieces using this method.
