On Fri, 4 Jan 2008 10:49:35 -0800 (PST), Jim Wilkins
wrote:

On Jan 3, 9:17*pm, (Doug White) wrote:
...
One possible issue with the Jet shears is that the metal may tend to
squirm a bit, giving you a curved cut. *You can fix this by rigging up
some sort of clamping system. *You'd probably want to rig up a good right
angle fence anyway, and you could add a clamping set up to that.

Doug White

I think so too. If we go with the Jet I'd certainly consider making
both of these improvements.

I've used the Enco version of the 8" shear on 1/8" mild steel and seen
the same problem. If you have one person heaving on the lever and
another one guiding the plate you might get a clean straight cut. The
curved-blade-side cutoff strip is strongly twisted and can force the
plate out of line if it hits anything. I'd plasma-cut about 1/2"
oversize, then shear.

Rough cut then shear might be an excellent idea. My friend doesn't
have a plasma (and I'm not loaning mine out for a big job) but he
might be able to use a chopsaw -- or maybe even buy a small plasma for
the job. Even a cheap HF unit might suffice for a few hundred rough
cuts in .047" SS.

You could bolt the shear to a plank at the edge of a pallet and put
another pallet on top beside it for a work surface level with the
blade.

Right. He's good at contriving field-expedient work stations.

Jim Wilkins