I'm wondering if anyone has had experience with air shears, an air nibbler, a small 3" cutoff wheel, and a jigsaw with a metal blade. What are the pros and cons of tools like these? I'll just be cutting a thinner guage of metal, mainly stuff for body work. Thanks
The only tool I haven't used to cut sheet metal is a 3 inch cutoff wheel, but it is the ONLY tool used on all the TV shows. This may be because the flying sparks look cool to Joe Adverage watching. A nibbler and sharp left amd right hand snips should cut whatever you need to cut.
All of the metal cutting methods you've mentioned are useful for certain situations. Someone who is into sheetmetal fabrication on a professional basis will probably use them all along with a shear (foot operated or power). I mainly use a beverly shear (expensive for occasional use) or aviation shears (right, left, straight) for routine light gauge cutting. A 3-4 inch air cutoff saw is useful in a lot of situations (on a little heavier metal) or to cut panels out of the middle of large sheets. I also have a 4' power shear but it is used very little, mainly to downsize large sheets to a more manageable size. Frank
each one has it's place. I like my electric shears, don't have a nibbler any more, cut offs work good but get a good one and have lots of air, jig saws work good too but can jump around, beat things up and break blades if you're not carefull. if you're just starting out with limited funds get the jig saw, a hacksaw and some good aviation snips, then tool up from there as you need. Paul
Mostly snips, jigsaw for curves\holes sometimes,and cutoff wheels for work ON the car. Get the really thin cutoff wheels,they rule! Z
For what you're describing, I'd suggest the Harbor Freight electric shear for around $40. I hate most of their stuff, but this is one tool that works. --Matt
Pretty much all of them if you have them. While replacing the floors and rockers in my 51 Chevy I ended up using a cut-off wheel, grinder, jig saw w/metal blade, sheet metal shears and electric shears (but not all at once )!
I'll agree with DeuceRails on the H/Frt electric shears. There was a post about them on here and I got them on sale at H/F for $29.99!!! They will cut up to 16 ga. and are surprisingly well made.
[ QUOTE ] The only tool I haven't used to cut sheet metal is a 3 inch cutoff wheel, but it is the ONLY tool used on all the TV shows. [/ QUOTE ] Half of them look like 4 1/2's to me. But I have all of those tools plus a body saw and a plasma. I can't think of one that doesn't have it's place. Though I agree the least useful is the jigsaw. I love my nibblers on lite sheet. I need a set of the electric Bosch nibblers, those things rock...
My main tool is a pair of 25 dollar Aviation right anle snips. A Plasma cutter is nice and I use it a lot but again not necessarily a have to case. I use the 3-1/2" thin wheel air cut off for cuttin sheet metasl quite often. you can "score" it about half way thru and this will leave a "blueing mark" of your peice on the reverse side. A quick score over that mark on the rear will render it easily bent in two [by hand] saving wheels and half the cut time.
this is a lil unsafe but i have a 4 inch grinder with a 7 inch cutoff disc on it and it goes throguh anything made out of steel fast, its like a hand held chop saw, i also like a sawzall for rough applications.made a homemade pair of stationairy immatation beverly shears by ruining and nice pair of snips and welding them to some plate and tubing. cant remember how i did it though. will
i use all of the above mentioned tools. buy all you can they will get used. snips get used alot for any type of cut. air or electric shears great for straight or gentile curves nibblers good for curves and heavyer sheet metal cut off wheel used most to cut out parts on the car where the other tools can not get into plasma cutter can do all the above but alot of sparks and heat foot shear perfect straight cuts,helps reduce big sheets
[ QUOTE ] For what you're describing, I'd suggest the Harbor Freight electric shear for around $40. I hate most of their stuff, but this is one tool that works. --Matt [/ QUOTE ] Is that an actual shear or a "nibbler" that spits out tons of sharp litle plugs of steel all over the friggin place? (You can probably tell I don't like nibblers..)
I also have a hand nibbler that I like. Well I guess it is called a nibbler, it has two stationary jaws and one the moves in the middle. It rolls out about 3/16 wide piece of waste as it cuts. I wouldn't want to cut a whole panel with it but at times it is hands and leaves a nicer edge than hand snips. I also like the air cut offs but those things use gobs of air. My die grinders are some of my favorite tools too and I use them for lots of different metal shaping tasks. Sawsall is a handy all around tool for tearout and rough work. Jigsaws and I don't get along well.
for serious ripping of sheet metal on the car, an abrasive blade in the worm drive moves fast and loud. blades are cheap and everybody should have a skillsaw. willowbilly3, that would be a shear, the nibbler does just as DrJ describes. Paul
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] For what you're describing, I'd suggest the Harbor Freight electric shear for around $40. I hate most of their stuff, but this is one tool that works. --Matt [/ QUOTE ] Is that an actual shear or a "nibbler" that spits out tons of sharp litle plugs of steel all over the friggin place? (You can probably tell I don't like nibblers..) [/ QUOTE ] It's a shear. The cutting edges look like a tiny Beverly shear.
I used a 3 inch cut off on my first project. Used alot of Blades and got king of expensive. On my coupe I used a heavy duty Milwaukee jigsaw and some plasma cutting. Jigsaw worked great even on the 16 guage stuff.
nibbler spits out lots of little sharp pieces that always end up stuck in your knee when your on the floor
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