Cutting Thin Sheet Metal Straight

How to cut sheet metal method 1 of 4.

Cutting thin sheet metal straight.

Choose a blade with 20 to 24 tpi teeth per inch for thin metal 10 to 18 tpi for medium thickness metal and about 8. Right cutting left cutting and straight cutting snips. Set your saw to straight rather than oscillating if there s a choice. Open the cutters as wide as you can at the start of each stroke and make long smooth strokes.

Choose between red blue or yellow snips based on the cut direction. Make long strokes for long straight cuts. Using tin snips for thin sheets. Long straight cuts are easier to make with large tin snips.

Here are a few tips for cutting metal with a recip saw. Extend blade life by keeping the saw s speed slow. These photo steps show that it can be done using a utility knife. Cutting straight lines with an electric saw.

The illustrations are for a small bracket but i have cut 3 foot long pieces using this method. Longer blade was nice for long straight cuts 148 see all buying options. If you use metal shears to cut thin sheet metal such as duct metal it curls and can be difficult to flaten properly. Using a chisel and hammer is the most basic form of cutting sheet metal.

Nice tight blade contact. Simply line up your chisel along the line you are going to cut and strike the back of it with a hammer. If you ve hit it hard enough the chisel will cut the sheet metal if it s thin enough. Right and left cutting snips are used for making curved cuts while straight cutting snips make straight cuts.

There are many different types of tin snips but for cutting sheet metal you only need to work with three basic types. Worked well to cut thin steel.