"Steve B" wrote in message
.. .
I am going to buy a sheet metal shear. The one that looks like a drill
with a pair of scissors sticking out of it.
...
Steve

I like this style:
http://toolmonger.com/wp-content/upl...erl_ss500_.jpg

The 8" Enco cuts 1/8" steel reasonably well. Unlike the scissors type you
push the metal in for the next cut and pull the handle to shear it as two
separate operations, which makes guiding the cut along the line easier. The
pneumatic scissors one I have doesn't always feed forward smoothly, so I
lean hard on it and then it breaks free and jumps. The waving sharp-edged
curlicue it removes is closer than I like to my hands.

On the plus side the scissors leaves both sides flat while the bench shear
curls one downwards, so it's better for trimming the waste off the edges
than slicing a piece off a full sheet. The scissors will cut corrugated
roofing crosswise without (much) distortion.

Then there's the cutoff wheel in the angle grinder, which can make blind
cuts with square corners.

jsw