Cutting Thin Aluminum Sheets

Make your first cut.

Cutting thin aluminum sheets.

And you can use the same technique anytime you need a straight cut on aluminum or other light gauge sheet metal even steel. Be the first to share. Clamp or hold a straightedge or square along the cutting marks and score a line with the tip of a sharp utility knife blade. Using tin snips for thin sheets 1.

Clamp the sheet metal in place on your work table to hold it in place while. How to cut fold sheet aluminium. Align the tin snips with the sheet metal. Most tin snip manufacturers color code their.

An air powered sheet metal nibbler or a nibbler head attached to a power drill can cut through galvanized corrugated aluminum sheet as well as flat sheet up to 16 gauge. Place the metal on a hard surface to score it and on long pieces do the bending with the score place along a sharp edge of a bench and if necessary clamp the fixed piece with a long piece of flat wood to prevent buckling the metal while bending it back and forth. Then bend the sheet back and forth a few times to snap it. Use cnc router bits for cutting aluminum carbide endmills cnc routers use a variety of specialized cutters that should not be used with aluminum.

Mark the start and stopping point of your cut with a grease pencil or some similar implement that marks on sheet metal. Choose between red blue or yellow snips based on the cut direction. Bench mounted tools such as shears or band saws cut aluminum sheet relatively slowly and with varying amounts of accuracy. Downcut spirals compression cutters and the like have no place in aluminum work.

To cut the sheets of metal rathe. Using a softer piece of material such as wood as a backer will allow the chisel to push through the metal and prevent wear on the chisel s tip. Cutting aluminum sheet metal with a hammer and chisel is relatively straight forward line up the edge of the chisel along the line you wish to cut and strike the chisel with a hammer. Clamp the aluminum down.

You want cutters specifically made for aluminum.