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Mike Spencer Mike Spencer is offline
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Default Sheet metal nibbler vs. shears



"Steve B" writes:

I have noticed there are two types of cutters for sheet metal. One a
nibbler, one a shear.


Around 1980, when I was relatively poor, I was making quite a bit of
hand-formed stuff out of 16 ga m/s shapes. I bought a Bosch electric
nibbler and that, together with a Beverly B3 fixed me right up. The
nibbler was a big ding in the budget at that time but I never
regretted it. I did break the die -- easy to do -- once early on but
Bosch had a new one in stock. (As someone else observed, a HF cheapo
replacement die might be a problem.)

I find it hard to follow a line with the nibbler but easy to rough out
the shape, then tidy it up pretty accurately with the B3. Beats
trying to manage a 4x8 or 4x4 sheet of 16 ga. though the B3 by a mile.

Recently someone gave me a cheap Chinese air nibbler. It never worked
right and I threw it away after determining that I couldn't figure out
how to make it right.

Now that I have air, I use one of those two-prongs-up, one-prong-down
bits for an air chisel/hammer on light stuff with excellent results.

--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada