How To Cut Sheet Metal With Clean Edge

Keep the metal sheet pressed up against the jaws of the snips as much as possible as you cut.

How to cut sheet metal with clean edge.

Cutting corrugated metal with anything producing heat can void the warranty by your manufactures and can make permanent damage to the metal sheets causing them to rust. Secure the sheet metal to prevent slipping. In addition special sheet metal cutting tips are available for specific metals and thicknesses. Mark your line and clamp a 2 4 or even a yardstick parallel to the edge use the torch head to get the proper spacing and then you have an easy guide to get a clean straight cut.

If you use metal shears to cut thin sheet metal such as duct metal it curls and can be difficult to flaten properly. Use a die grinder with the mounted point and simply run the point over the edge of the sheet metal. This eats away at the metal and leaves a very clean and smooth edge. The illustrations are for a small bracket but i have cut 3 foot.

Think of cutting the metal as a school craft project only with bigger sharper materials. Good old metal files are great for straightening cut lines in metal edges and for removing burrs and other imperfections. Water jets are surprisingly capable of cutting very thick sheet metal up to a few inches thick with very high accuracy. Run the point over the other sides to break those sharp edges.

How to cut thin sheet metal and keep it flat. Open the scissors as wide as you can then fit the metal snugly between the blades. Also referred to as aviator snips these scissor like hand tools cut sheet metal materials up to 18 gauge in thickness accurately without leaving a ragged bent edge as the finished product. Whether you use an angle grinder or a circular saw the heat damages the edges and the shower of hot sparks can destroy the protective coating and burns the paint finish.

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. They can be used in combination with handheld edge deburrers to produce very clean edges. If you have to cut a straight line clamp the sheet to a metal table with the edge to be cut just off the table. These photo steps show that it can be done using a utility knife.

As the groove in the point wears just move down the point to create a new groove and so on.