Cutting Thin Sheet Metal Straight

If you use metal shears to cut thin sheet metal such as duct metal it curls and can be difficult to flaten properly.

Cutting thin sheet metal straight.

Extend blade life by keeping the saw s speed slow. Choose between red blue or yellow snips based on the cut direction. Longer blade was nice for long straight cuts 148 see all buying options. Wax your saw blade before cutting sheet metal.

Making detailed cuts with. Nice tight blade contact. Lift the cutoff strip and roll it to the side to prevent it from binding on the tin snips handle. Set your saw to straight rather than oscillating if there s a choice.

Worked well to cut thin steel. These photo steps show that it can be done using a utility knife. Make long strokes for long straight cuts. Here are a few tips for cutting metal with a recip saw.

Long straight cuts are easier to make with large tin snips. How to cut sheet metal method 1 of 4. Open the cutters as wide as you can at the start of each stroke and make long smooth strokes. Using tin snips for thin sheets.

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

The illustrations are for a small bracket but i have cut 3 foot long pieces using this method. 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.