How To Cut 26 Gauge Sheet Metal

Place the sheet metal on top of the workbench and lay out your pattern using a tape measure pencil and straightedge.

How to cut 26 gauge sheet metal. The lower the number the thicker the metal is. Open the cutters as wide as you can at the start of each stroke and make long smooth strokes. 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.

Lift the cutoff strip and roll it to the side to prevent it from binding on the tin snips handle. 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. Use a bench shear to easily cut most gauges of sheet metal. About sheet metal gauge.

Align the snips with the line you want to cut with the upper blade of the tin snips touching the sheet metal. And just like wires the answer is derived in the unit of the gauge. While you can cut down the middle of a large sheet of metal aviation snips are best for narrow strip removal. Tin snips are primarily used for cutting thin sheet metal like tin aluminum brass and thin gauge stainless steel.

Clamp the sheet metal in place on your work table to hold it in place while you work. Simply line up your chisel along the line you are going to cut and strike the back of it with a hammer. Throatless sheers can cut inside curves and other complicated shapes in addition to outside curves and straight lines. Straight shears make cuts that are straight lines.

Make long strokes for long straight cuts. A soft wood backer will allow for the chisel to pass through more easily by providing support for the metal. Bench shears come in two general types. 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.

Long straight cuts are easier to make with large tin snips. Straight shears and throatless shears.