Hello....

I need to cut many different shapes out of sheet metal (12 ga to 28
ga), copper sheet (16 and 20 oz.) and lastly, Aluminum (12 ga to 24
ga). **None of the shapes or pieces would be bigger than a square
foot in size.**

What would be the best tool to do the job ? Bandsaw ?, Perhaps a
Scroll Saw ? Makes ? Models ?

Any help would be much appreciated !

Cheers,

/MM

Jman wrote:

Hello....

I need to cut many different shapes out of sheet metal (12 ga to 28
ga), copper sheet (16 and 20 oz.) and lastly, Aluminum (12 ga to 24
ga). **None of the shapes or pieces would be bigger than a square
foot in size.**

What would be the best tool to do the job ? Bandsaw ?, Perhaps a
Scroll Saw ? Makes ? Models ?

Any help would be much appreciated !

Cheers,

/MM

A Beverly Shear model B-1

Tom

On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 01:43:17 -0700, Jman
wrote:

Hello....

I need to cut many different shapes out of sheet metal (12 ga to 28
ga), copper sheet (16 and 20 oz.) and lastly, Aluminum (12 ga to 24
ga). **None of the shapes or pieces would be bigger than a square
foot in size.**

What would be the best tool to do the job ? Bandsaw ?, Perhaps a
Scroll Saw ? Makes ? Models ?

Any help would be much appreciated !

Cheers,

/MM

Desired precision, edge finish, minimum radius of curvature and volume
(number of pieces) are important parameters.

Other possibilities (aside from die-stamping) include shears,
throatless shears as Beverly that can cut curves in up to 1/8" mild
steel, nibblers, plasma, laser and water jet.

On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 01:43:17 -0700, with neither quill nor qualm, Jman
quickly quoth:

Hello....

I need to cut many different shapes out of sheet metal (12 ga to 28
ga), copper sheet (16 and 20 oz.) and lastly, Aluminum (12 ga to 24
ga). **None of the shapes or pieces would be bigger than a square
foot in size.**

What would be the best tool to do the job ? Bandsaw ?, Perhaps a
Scroll Saw ? Makes ? Models ?

Any help would be much appreciated !

Here's that discussion online, Moog.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=7331

--
The ancient and curious thing called religion, as it shows itself in the
modern world, is often so overladen with excrescences and irrelevancies
that its fundamental nature tends to be obscured.
--H.L. Mencken in "Treatise on the Gods"

Don Foreman wrote:

Desired precision, edge finish, minimum radius of curvature and volume
(number of pieces) are important parameters. ...

as is *budget*. The sky's the limit, so we really need some idea of
what you're thinking of spending. Bob

Jman wrote:
Hello....

I need to cut many different shapes out of sheet metal (12 ga to 28
ga), copper sheet (16 and 20 oz.) and lastly, Aluminum (12 ga to 24
ga). **None of the shapes or pieces would be bigger than a square
foot in size.**

What would be the best tool to do the job ? Bandsaw ?, Perhaps a
Scroll Saw ? Makes ? Models ?

Any help would be much appreciated !

Cheers,

/MM


Saws wouldn't be good. You should have at least three teeth in the
workpiece to avoid breaking them off and to assure a nice edge on the
part. Those parts are way too thin for that. Take the advice about the
shear.
Randy

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

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.

The fine cuts you see on sheet metal are done by machine-guided laser, waterjet
or plasma.

I think the best you could do is to get a plasma cutter with fine-cut tooling
and practice following a template which you can cut out of common materials.

By the way, I sometimes use a 14 tpi blade on my vertical bandsaw to cut thin
sheet metal (~22 gauge). I just feed it gently and it works OK even though
obviously there aren't anything like 3 teeth per cut.

Grant

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.

I still smile every time I use my plasma cutter...

Cuts steel, stainless, aluminum like butter - very fast with a clean edge

I haven't tried copper


"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
...
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.

The fine cuts you see on sheet metal are done by machine-guided laser,
waterjet
or plasma.

I think the best you could do is to get a plasma cutter with fine-cut
tooling
and practice following a template which you can cut out of common
materials.

By the way, I sometimes use a 14 tpi blade on my vertical bandsaw to cut
thin
sheet metal (~22 gauge). I just feed it gently and it works OK even though
obviously there aren't anything like 3 teeth per cut.

Grant

"Jman" wrote in message
ups.com...

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,

I would talk to a water jet shop. If you can give them a drawing on a disk
they can download this to the machine and cut just about any shape or
material you want.

Since you only have a few pieces to do and you have $1,500 to spend you
could pay them to do the cutting, and save the bulk of that amount for a
tool that you would use often.

--
Roger Shoaf
If you are not part of the solution, you are not dissolved in the solvent.

On Aug 12, 7:53 pm, "Roger Shoaf" wrote:
"Jman" wrote in message

ups.com...



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,

I would talk to a water jet shop. If you can give them a drawing on a disk
they can download this to the machine and cut just about any shape or
material you want.

Since you only have a few pieces to do and you have $1,500 to spend you
could pay them to do the cutting, and save the bulk of that amount for a
tool that you would use often.

--
Roger Shoaf
If you are not part of the solution, you are not dissolved in the solvent.



Old kitchen counters make marvellous backing boards for cutting sheet
metal with a bandsaw.

Simply stick the sheet metal onto the particle board with carpet tape
and then cut it on a regular metal cutting bandsaw with say a 16 pitch
or 14 pitch blade.

Especially if you do not do much sheet metal work this method is very
useful. Remember to peel the work off right away or you may have
difficulty removing the work. An alternative would be to glue the
sheet metal onto the board with shellac or any heat-softening glue.

Wolfgang

Wow,

I didn't realize it would be so difficult to cut simple shapes from
sheet metal ! A real eye opener for me, that's for sure.... Well,
thanks everyone for the advice. I'm going to check out a number of
tools and see which combination will work best.

/MM

Certainly worth a try...