The Armour Archive

I would like to purchase a throatless shear for cutting patterns from sheets.

Is the Beverly shear pretty much the way to go, with the cheaper Harbour Freight knockoffs beings too far inferior?

Of the Beverly shears is the b3 to big or manageable?

Has anyone used a plasma cutter to cut sheet - I can see the dross or rough edge could be an issue.

Recommendations welcome.

Thanks

Rich

The Beverlys are the cream of the crop, obviously. And you pay for it.

The Harbour Freight knockoffs are hit-or-miss. You'll hear about people who have used them for decades with no trouble, and others who chipped a blade on the first stroke. Buying a replacement set of blades seems to fix this. A decent product for a great price.

Plasma cutters for any edge, frankly, sucks. The rough edge looks as if it was gnawed out by a rat. You'll spend a good hour or more grinding the edges, before you begin hammering.

Go with the makita js3200 if you look around online you can find it for $350 new.

The electric shear actually looks pretty interested, any more feedback on electric vs manual or other?

i have a b1 b2 and b3 beverly shear and i wanna get a good band saw for cutting out patterns. the band sand doesnt tweek the metal like a shear does.

I am pretty happy with a B2 and a cheapy for thin stuff. I don't tend to go above 12g mild often, so I don't need a B3. I worked without the cheapy for years but I added a cheapy because it was so cheap, I was curious if it would really work, and I am cutting a lot of 18-20g.

I have found that different people like to work different ways. I don't mind waving around 2x4 foot sheets, or even 3x4 through a beverly.
I don't like shoving an electric shear through the middle of a sheet.
Others would feel exactly the opposite.
I like the 'feel' I get with the manual shear. I also like the quiet.

It is possible to cut armour using a beverly, electric shear, jigsaw, bandsaw, cut-off wheels, or even a chisel. I like the first.

Your mileage WILL vary.

Wade

When you say cutting patterns do you mean making sheet metal patterns that will be saved for reuse or do you mean you're cutting stock to be made into items? BIG difference in what you want there.

I'm not even sure he actually meant patterns, rereading the OP.

A friend has the Harbor Freight shear with blades that had quickly worn out and gotten little chips. I had a set of brand new Beverly B1 blades (screwed up ordering blades for my B2 and wait to long to return them). So with a little grinding to reduce the width of the Beverly blades they are now in his HF shear and it cuts so nice. Not the same leverage and capacity as my B2 but well worth having in the shop.

The bottom blade had to have nearly 1/8" removed from the side opposite the cutting edge, the upper blade only had to have about 1/32" removed for it to fit.

So the screw/bolt placement is similar? Wonder why it took so long to mention this.

I have a harbor freight throatless shear and that thing is awesome.
I dont know how I worked without it for all those years.

Get a throatless B2. I have one and its the funniest tool ever. Its like cutting metal with scissors. Try to get one used though, to save a couple hundred bucks. Its quite, simple to use, don't need any power other than an arm, and authentic.

The shears depicted in period works don't look anything like a beverly so this must be a different view of authenticity.

Cutting sheetmetal with a shear is documented but the bench mount shears look more like tin snips on steroids.

I love the beverly because it's *quiet*; and so few things in armouring are....

I ended up purchasing this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... _500wt_923

If you can't see it, its an old Beverly B2 for about $400

Now the next question is - how can I go about cleaning up a slightly rusted Beverly B2, is a dismantle and soak in a rust remover like calcium lime rust ok? Can I then WD40 or 3in1 oil it, maybe paint the non moving parts with some metal paint?

Any recommendations on restoring the shear and sharpening blades would be helpful if anyone has any input?

Thanks

Rich

They disassemble very easily. I took mine apart, cleaned the parts, and then lubed all metal-on-metal areas with some axle grease I had laying around. I hit the blades with a squirt of WD40 every now and then.

For sharpening, I always just send my blades in to the Beverly Shear Co. in Chicago. It's pretty much the same process each time I need them sharpened. I call them up and tell them I need a set of blades sharpened. They have me send them in for inspection. Then they call me back with a quote. I mail them a check. They send the blades back to me. Every time, the blades I get back look brand new, with new bolts for the uppers, an allen wrench & a little flyer. They don't take credit cards or paypal - they don't even have an office computer! The last time I sent my blades in, the lady in the office was looking up my account - in a filing cabinet! She said that the latest piece of office equipment they got was a fax machine! I actually think its pretty cool that they can run a business without a computer.

She told me about when they found out about the knock-off shears. Someone tried to return one to them, complaining that the frame broke. Well, they had never heard of one breaking before, so they took a look at it and it wasn't actually one of theirs. While I can appreciate getting a good deal, and the HF one certainly is a good deal, I do actually feel bad for the BS Co. that their machines are being ripped off. I'm sure that if HF had their copy available before I got my B2, I would have gotten the HF shear, so maybe I'm a hypocrite.

Oh yeah, here's a tip to keep from scarring up the bottom piece of metal when cutting. File the bottom-right-rear corner & the bottom-rear edge of the top blade. Especially that corner. I actually used a sanding disc on a dremel. This will go a long way towards preventing the deep scratches that develop one blade's width from the edge on the lower piece of metal.

- Scott

Go after rust on bright metal with either a green scrubbie or a brown one, the next level of grittiness up. The greenie does for light rust on smooth surfaces, the brown one for heavier deposits.

Cutting oil, WD-40, or 3-in-1 all work as part of the rust get-outta-there.

Not only does this clean up your new Bev, it makes you familiar with its every part should something go awry.