Best Way To Shape Sheet Metal

For sheet metal parts the thickness is the same everywhere.

Best way to shape sheet metal.

Sheet metal usually refers to a thin metal plate with a thickness of 6 mm or less. Metal nibblers are the best option for making curved cuts because of its increased range of control. Often called the poor man s pullmax tuck shrinking is another way of shrinking metal to gain shape. Sheet metal fabrication is a cold processing process which is commonly used for punching bending drawing and forming.

There are two ways to cut round ducts. 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. With the aid of a straight edge and a sharp knife score both sides of the aluminium sheet. Straight cutting compound snips work best for cutting thick or doubled up sheet metal.

If a straight line is required it is best to shear flat metal in a metal shear. Mark a bend line and place the sheet metal on the edge of your bench. Instead we recommend using a diamond blade that s rated to cut ferrous metal. But the discs wear down quickly cut slowly and shrink in diameter as you use them.

They don t cut curves well. Sheet aluminium can be cut without the need for a guillotine or tin snips which tend to deform the metal. Place the fracture line over the edge of a table and bend the overhang slightly downwards. Although you can use a metal nibbler for long cuts in sheet metal it takes more time and is generally less convenient.

Clamp the wood on top of the metal to the workbench. It s ideal when lots of shrinking needs to be done and you don t have access to a machine. Next place the wood parallel and slightly behind the bending line. First if you want to cut a duct near the middle and use both ends mark and cut the duct before snapping it together.

This photo shows hammering on dolly but in this case the dolly is rubber clad. Finally bend the sheet up by hand to the angle desired. The work shown here is a fine tuning operation in the final stages of forming and flattening a surface. Hammering off dolly is a precision operation that is used to shape metal without stretching it.

Different methods of cutting metal work best in different situations. There is no perfect or best way to cut sheetmetal materials.