On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:46:47 -0700, Jman
wrote:
Well, I actually have a 12" shear right now, along with electric hand
shears and a hand shears. I use them mostly for straight cuts and
such but what I need 'this tool' for is more intricate cutting. As an
example, I have been trying to cut out the tracing of my little guys
hand and airbrush it with his favourite colours.... We do this
together (the painting) and I think it will make a nice little
keepsake for when he gets older (I plan on doing this every year or so
to show how much he grew..)
In any event, I've been attempting to do some similar work small
shapes and images of animals, utensils and such and it's
been.....well, a disaster ! I've been able to do much of the work
with very light gauge material and a good pair of snips, but that just
won't work with the heavier stuff. So basically I need a cutting tool
that's going to be able to cut everything from a 3 inch crescent
shape, to something as big as a handprint.
- I'm not producing this 'en masse' so no production facility in the
near future. 
- My budget is around $1500.00 US dollars.
Thanks again,
/MM
I'd say either plasma or Beverly shear, clean up to the line with a
file. Filing goes very quickly with sheetmetal, particularly aluminum
and copper but also even with 12-gage steel. Beverly will cut anything
from shim stock to 12 gage effortlessly (can do 1/8" mild steel), and
it is capable (with practice) of cutting rather intricate shapes.
Plasma can cut arbitrarily intricate shapes but will require a
template and a few minutes of cleanup with a file. A 110-volt-powered
25-amp plasma cutter would more than suffice for your needs. You
could get both the Beverly and the plasma within your budget. If you
have compressed air, I'd add a $30 die grinder with a 3" sanding disc.
That'll smooth sheetmetal to a scribe line right now, once you've
chewed away most of the excess some other way.
HF offers a throatless shear Beverly clone. I don't know if it's any
good or not, but I would suspect not. My experience is with a Beverly
B-2. It is a sturdy, very well-made tool. A B-1 would probably suit
you better for a bit less $. Note the sample cut he
http://www.tinmantech.com/html/beverly_shear_b1.php
I've long wondered what the scale of that sample was.