How To Cut 26 Gauge Sheet Metal

To compensate for how metal may curve or bend cut a strip out where you use red snips for one side and green snips on the other cutting 2 inches at a time on alternating sides so two inches up the right side two inches up the left.

How to cut 26 gauge sheet metal.

Straight shears and throatless shears. Straight shears make cuts that are straight lines. Open the cutters as wide as you can at the start of each stroke and make long smooth strokes. Place the sheet metal on top of the workbench and lay out your pattern using a tape measure pencil and straightedge.

About sheet metal gauge. Long straight cuts are easier to make with large tin snips. Bench shears come in two general types. Align the snips with the line you want to cut with the upper blade of the tin snips touching the sheet metal.

A soft wood backer will allow for the chisel to pass through more easily by providing support for the metal. Whenever it comes to cutting any sheet metal the first and foremost concern is how thick the cut will be. Make long strokes for long straight cuts. The tool that is used to measure this thickness is called sheet metal gauge.

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. And just like wires the answer is derived in the unit of the gauge. The lower the number the thicker the metal is. It can cut sheet metals both in gauge and inches fractions.

If you ve hit it hard enough the chisel will cut the sheet metal if it s thin enough. If your project requires curved cuts make an easy economical and adjustable. Tin snips are primarily used for cutting thin sheet metal like tin aluminum brass and thin gauge stainless steel. Use a bench shear to easily cut most gauges of sheet metal.

Simply line up your chisel along the line you are going to cut and strike the back of it with a hammer. While you can cut down the middle of a large sheet of metal aviation snips are best for narrow strip removal.