Best Way To Shape Sheet Metal

There are two ways to cut round ducts.

Best way to shape sheet metal.

Different methods of cutting metal work best in different situations. First if you want to cut a duct near the middle and use both ends mark and cut the duct before snapping it together. If a straight line is required it is best to shear flat metal in a metal shear. But the discs wear down quickly cut slowly and shrink in diameter as you use them.

Next place the wood parallel and slightly behind the bending line. Straight cutting compound snips work best for cutting thick or doubled up sheet metal. The work shown here is a fine tuning operation in the final stages of forming and flattening a surface. A stationary or hand shear is a very good approach to delicate detail work.

Metal nibblers are the best option for making curved cuts because of its increased range of control. For sheet metal parts the thickness is the same everywhere. There is no perfect or best way to cut sheetmetal materials. They don t cut curves well.

This photo shows hammering on dolly but in this case the dolly is rubber clad. Often called the poor man s pullmax tuck shrinking is another way of shrinking metal to gain shape. Hammering off dolly is a precision operation that is used to shape metal without stretching it. Sheet metal fabrication is a cold processing process which is commonly used for punching bending drawing and forming.

Clamp the wood on top of the metal to the workbench. Finally bend the sheet up by hand to the angle desired. Instead we recommend using a diamond blade that s rated to cut ferrous metal. This weakens the aluminium and creates a fracture line.

It s ideal when lots of shrinking needs to be done and you don t have access to a machine. Sheet metal usually refers to a thin metal plate with a thickness of 6 mm or less. With the aid of a straight edge and a sharp knife score both sides of the aluminium sheet. 2 secure the sheet metal and position the metal nibbler against the line edge.

An angle grinder fitted with an abrasive metal cutting disc works well to cut all kinds of metal including bolts angle iron rebar and even sheet metal. Although you can use a metal nibbler for long cuts in sheet metal it takes more time and is generally less convenient.