Your preferred method to cut steel

[Asgeir]

I have been having some success cutting out parts from sheet metal with a jigsaw then finishing the edges with a dremel and bench grinder, however it is very very time consuming and often gives inconsistent results. What is your favorite way of cutting parts out? I'm looking to try out a new way.

I also have a band saw, but metal cutting blades are hard to find for it and normal blades wear out too fast to make it cost effective.

[The Iron Dwarf]

a bench shear for straight cuts or a throatless for straight or curved cuts, plasma cutter for thicker stuff

[Jeppe]

I use a large shear for straight and broad curves, and an angle grinder with a cutting disc for corners.

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[accdntprone]

shear mostly, now and then when the shear is too awkward I use a jig saw or the angle grinder.

[Aaron]

Heat vision.

[Ckanite]

Depends on what I'm doing, but when I can get away with it, I use a hammer and chisel. On larger things that H&C won't work I use an angle grinder with a cut-off wheel. and on small, almost finished things, I use my dremel.

[Thomas Powers]

beverly shear hands down! it's *quiet*!

[RandallMoffett]

I agree. Throatless shears are awesome.

RPM

[RoundTop]

Cut big pieces with a throatless shear. Smaller-medium pieces a band saw works well, for corners and curves, a belt sander is a great way to do it and get nice smooth curves.

[Sevastian]

Good friends are letting me baby sit their B2. I'm already saving up for one of my own, and my Wife really appreciates how quiet cutting sheet metal has become(I was using a 4.5" angle grinder).

[Uryen]

I used to cut steel using an angle grinder and a jigsaw. This was before those superthin angle grinder cutting discs were readily available. It sucked very much. A couple of years ago I asked my brother to buy me a Harbor Freight throatless shear (B1 copy). I use it for everything ever since. Back in the early days of this Armour Archive folks were saying of blade chips and gear rack jams, but I have seen none of that. I believe that the manufacturers have fixed the problems since then. I used mine straight out of the box and it is fantastic. I often use mine to open those stupid plastic packs from the store that are unopenable
A short while ago I made a video review of the throatless shear which you can watch here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrKIQhW0dWA

[Konstantin the Red]

I also have a band saw, but metal cutting blades are hard to find for it and normal blades wear out too fast to make it cost effective.

You need a better way to look for the metal-saws, then. Try inquiring at places under Steel in the yellow pages, and as a last resort ask at welders' supply places. These are the people who deal in fabrication in metal, and it is their business to supply any wherewithal to get that done.

Shops sometimes have a spotwelder gizmo for repairing busted saw blades, or for making the proper length of blade for the saw from a coiled stash of blade in the first place, umpty-hundred-odd feet of the stuff. Cut off, lap, weld, put into saw. The blade welder does mean that busting a bandsaw blade doesn't bring you to a screeching (especially from you! ) halt.

Beverly B-2s go seven or eight hundred new, consistently four to four-fifty on eBay -- and will last your entire lifetime and cut 14ga all day. Heftier stuff with little nibbles.

The Harbour Frightful Chinese knockoff of a B-1 is good for 16ga mild anyway, and its entire setup, top to bottom and every last bolt, should be carefully checked by you. They don't necessarily set 'em up carefully before they box them for shipping, so verify everything, feeler-gauge the blade spacing and so on. Their blade heat treat has apparently been getting better. Taking little nibbles can cut 14ga mild, but a steady diet of that stuff is beyond its abilities. Price, unless you score a coupon deal, rather north of one hundred bucks. Lifetime service? -- doubtful unless you're cutting nothing but brass and 18ga.

Of these two you get what you pay for.

Thus, the two usual nimble throatless shears. Another type of shear is the "slitting shear" and it makes straight cuts and can handle a bit of outside curvature too. But its forte is the straight cut, making slits. They tend to be very powerful shears for their hundred-dollar price, parting plate and barstock easily. They're just not as clever at steering around complicated stuff -- doing that means lots of scrap. Which itself is not horrible with a powerful punch in the shop (R-W #8 or #20 or #XX) and you either snipping out your own period handmade washers -- and saving big bucks, as washers are surprisingly costly retail -- or punching solid mail links out if your ambitions run that way and the scrap you cut is thin enough. True modern washers usually are not, for mail application; too farking thick.

And you don't have to plug any of these in.

One you do that's still handy and doesn't cost quite as much as a Beverly bench shear is the electric power shear. It's built to work a lot like a big, beefy saber saw, but its blades are different: they push a sturdy edge up and down, shearing against a bottom blade too. An excellent tool for cutting an entire 4'x8' sheet of steel into manageable pieces, say two feet wide by four. Cuts curves too. SCA armoring guys should get the big expensive model that has the power to shear 10 gauge.

Nearly as expensive a lot of the time is the power nibbler, which in principle is a saber saw whose blade amounts to one big tooth that does all the work. This critter leaves fingernail-parings of chopped steel all over your shop floor, and takes a wide, 1/4" kerf, so it eats some material. Its amazing mutant power, though, is it can easily make 90-degree corners or tighter. Seriously, just push the tool in that direction, and it'll nibble along where you want it going, forward, sideways, whatever; its cutting head swivels. You buy this capacity at the cost of it cutting so wide a kerf. And the crescents of steel it cuts out are really really pointy. NO BARE FEET, NO SANDALS. But unparalleled agility.

And yeah: big sander = smooth curves on those edges after they're cut. Beltz R Good. More expensive belts, even better -- they last longer. The El Cheapos will fight you all the damn way.

[Asgeir]

Wow, nice writeup!

I actually picked up one of the harbor freight knock-offs today. It did the job, but already there is a chip or two in the blade. Complete rubbish if you ask me. I'll use it until I can save up money for a beverly.

I have a craftsman 10" band saw, table mounted. It uses 70 1/2" blades, which no local store sells, yet alone sells metal cutting blades. The only blades I can get are the 3 pack blades that sears sells, but don't include metal cutting.

I found a few online but they are charging way too much... I'll have to keep looking, and of course I'll check out local steel shops. Thanks for the tip!

[Keegan Ingrassia]

Throatless shear for metal 14-18 ga, jewlers saw for 20-24, snips for 26-30. 12 through 8 is a bandsaw if available. Anything heavier deserves a cutoff torch, or plasma.

[Cap'n Atli]

"When using electric saws and grinders of various sorts on sheet metal: wear hearing protections!"

"What?"

"Wear hearing protection!"

[Ckanite]

Never yell at someone who is using a power tool.
~turns head~ WhaaaaaaHHHHHHHH
~body twists just enough to make -insert power tool here- to slip and cause severe damage to hand, thigh, arm, project, pride...etc.~
It can wait till after they're done ruining their hearing for the moment. I speak from personal experience, though I always wear earplugs when I'm working.

[Godric of Castlemont]

I use a throatless shear for sheet metal and a Oxy/Propane torch for cutting large pieces of thick metal. The harbor freight shears are kinda crappy but for $80-$100 they will work for years unless you are cutting a huge amount of steel on a regular basis. If you are planning on doing production level armoring you may want to invest in a real Beverly Shear, otherwise go with the HF knock off.

[Uryen]

I actually picked up one of the harbor freight knock-offs today. It did the job, but already there is a chip or two in the blade. Complete rubbish if you ask me. I'll use it until I can save up money for a beverly.

Can I ask what you were cutting? I have noticed that straight out of the box, it seems to cut 1.6mm (16ga) easier and cleaner than 1.2mm (18ga). Probably to do with the blade gap.

[Asgeir]

I actually picked up one of the harbor freight knock-offs today. It did the job, but already there is a chip or two in the blade. Complete rubbish if you ask me. I'll use it until I can save up money for a beverly.

Can I ask what you were cutting? I have noticed that straight out of the box, it seems to cut 1.6mm (16ga) easier and cleaner than 1.2mm (18ga). Probably to do with the blade gap.

14g steel. The site says it cuts up to 16g, however I've heard a lot of people having success with 14g too. I've cut the pieces for a helm out (all 14g) with only the 2 chips from the first piece. It's probably fine now, the chips are small anyway.

[Konstantin the Red]

I have noticed that straight out of the box, it seems to cut 1.6mm (16ga) easier and cleaner than 1.2mm (18ga). Probably to do with the blade gap.

Exactly. Set blade gap right around one fourth of the thickness to be sheared, correct?

Googled some how-to:

Depending on the gage of metal you're trying to cut, the gap gets smaller and smaller, until it's eventually down to almost nothing. Almost nothing being on the order of 0.001". The smaller the gap, the better it handles thin metal. Thin metal bending over and jamming in the shear may not be a function of the blades being dull, it may just be a function of the gap between the blades being too large. The problem is that if the blades actually ram into each other, they trash themselves instantly. So close is good, but too close is a disaster. For thicker metal (>14ga, the blade gap needs to go up, so if the shear was set up for thicker steel to begin with, the blade gap may be set too wide for thin silver.)
. . . Some of the cheaper knockoffs we've been seeing lately are lightly built enough that the upper blade flexes out of alignment, which causes it to hit the lower blade. What it really causes is the blade gap to be set wider so that the upper blade *doesn't* hit the lower one as it flexes. Which means that the shear can't handle thin metal very well. If it's a newer, less robust shear, pay attention to the current setting of the blade, and work your way in tighter only as you test it to make sure the upper blade won't flex into the lower one while cutting the thickest stock you plan to use . . . longer blades are actually large pieces of spaghetti. All of those set-screws that attach them to the frame are *important*. It's very easy for the blades to go back on warped. Which means that the blade gap may be just fine on the ends, but totally out of whack in several spots along the middle of the blade. The thinner blades on the newer (cheaper) shears make this especially likely. Remember to [feeler] check the whole length of the blade, and to adjust all the screws individually if they need it.

[Uryen]

-snip- 14g steel. The site says it cuts up to 16g, however I've heard a lot of people having success with 14g too. I've cut the pieces for a helm out (all 14g) with only the 2 chips from the first piece. It's probably fine now, the chips are small anyway.

It performed as advertised and then some. Doesn't deserve the title of complete rubbish in my opinion.

[Halberds]

I use the Beverly shear for heavy sheet metal, an abrasive cut off machine for thicker straight cuts.
The plasma torch for thick intricate cuts.
Bulldog snips for light weight sheet metal.
Aviation snips for lighter stuff.
Bolt cutters for round small stuff like 1/4" rod and 3/16" rivets.
Dikes and end nippers for 1/8" rivets.

The band saw must run slower for sheet metal with a fine tooth blade and use a cutting lubricant.

Hal

[Signo]

Someone use things like that, in the heavy duty version:
http://img4.wfrcdn.com/lf/49/hash/996/8 ... +Shear.jpg
They are quite expensive and need some care, I love mine, but I don't use it a lot because I'm still without a shop.

[CatGoesMeow]

While I will say that a belt sander is a must for what one does after cutting, Bessey (as does Malco and LENOX) makes some very nice snips that can be had at a reasonable price. The Bessy snip (D29ASSL) can be had for about $30 for the carbon steel blade setup, and about $100 for the high-speed stainless. As these are hand-powered snips, they follow the same convention that other ships are built to - coming in left-cut (straight), and right-cut (straight) profiles. They can shear up to 16ga mild, 20-22ga stainless, but obviously you need some serious leather gloves if you plan on shearing terribly long cuts with them - the edges of that sliced plate tend to love the soft, fleshy part of the thumb. I use mine for detail work, and then some utility work in cutting out lames and other comparably sized bits (and smaller) - I find them to be faster than sanding or grinding something into the shape you want it.

-CGM

[The Iron Dwarf]

for thicker stuff, cutting or punching I have a geka 45 ton hydraulic steelworker
cuts 1 3/16 round or square easily, punches 1 1/8" holes in 1/2" plate, cuts 12" wide 1/2" thick and notches too

[The Iron Dwarf]

for smaller stuff I have a scotchman 207 20 ton steelworker ( made in the US )