How Do You Cut Thin Sheet Metal

Cut metal with your circular saw.

How do you cut thin sheet metal.

Simply line up your chisel along the line you are going to cut and strike the back of it with a hammer. For thinner gauge metal you may want to use a piece of scrap wood as backing so that the stainless steel sheet does not bend during cutting. For thin sheets of metal you can use tin snips to cut through it. Start by taping both sides of the sheet metal directly over the line you want to cut and clamp the metal to a work station so it doesn t move.

Using a chisel and hammer is the most basic form of cutting sheet metal. In our test it cut through rebar like a hot knife through butter. How to cut thin sheet metal and keep it flat. It may not be an obvious choice but fitted with the right blade a circular saw is a great metal cutting tool.

Tin snips or aviation snips are one of the most widely used tools to cut sheet metals. The illustrations are for a small bracket but i have cut 3 foot. They look like scissors and work fine with sheet metals like brass aluminum tin steel etc. If you ve got a lot of straight cutting to do buy tin snips like the one shown in photo 4.

To cut straight lines use an electric saw. As you cut one side of the sheet metal will ride up and over the lower jaw. Cut steel between 16 gauge and 8 gauge with an electric jigsaw with a metal cutting blade or with a hacksaw. It cuts metal almost as easily as a scissors cuts paper.

You can cut mild steel up to about 3 8 in. There are some cuts that you can do with decent tin snips. Then grip the saw with both hands and push the blade through the metal to cut it. If you use metal shears to cut thin sheet metal such as duct metal it curls and can be difficult to flaten properly.

Thick using a ferrous metal cutting blade. These photo steps show that it can be done using a utility knife. Hot metal chips will fly everywhere. Step 2 clamp your steel to a work bench or sawhorse.