The Murphy Builders Site

I realized a need for a good way to make long cuts in thicker sheet after
giving up on a piece of .032 and taking it to a local HVAC shop. I want to
get some kind of shear, but don't really know what would be best. Obviously
a 12' hydraulic one is not realistic for by budget or garage. I see several
possible economical options in the Harbor freight catalog. They have a
pneumatic in-line hand shear that removes a 7/32" kerf for $40.00. There is
also an electric sheet metal shear that looks something like a jigsaw for
$32.00, and the third thing I was looking at is a throatless shear that is
bench mounted and hand operated, basically like a big pair of snips, for
$80.00.
Any comments on these or other options would be great.
Thanks
Jesse





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My first choice is my bandsaw if the piece will fit the throat. If not the
bandsaw I just use snips or a jigsaw. I worked for a sheet metal guy for a
while and his throatless shear used to shrink or strech the edges quite a
bit. They were pretty wavy so if you go that way you might need cut a long
way from the line.

At 09:05 PM 5/25/2005 -0700, you wrote:

I realized a need for a good way to make long cuts in thicker sheet after
giving up on a piece of .032 and taking it to a local HVAC shop. I want to
get some kind of shear, but don't really know what would be best. Obviously
a 12' hydraulic one is not realistic for by budget or garage. I see several
possible economical options in the Harbor freight catalog. They have a
pneumatic in-line hand shear that removes a 7/32" kerf for $40.00. There is
also an electric sheet metal shear that looks something like a jigsaw for
$32.00, and the third thing I was looking at is a throatless shear that is
bench mounted and hand operated, basically like a big pair of snips, for
$80.00.
Any comments on these or other options would be great.
Thanks
Jesse





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Drew





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Jesse:

I found the best thing to use if you have $300.00 is the 30" press break,
shear and slip roller from Harbor freight when they are on sale. They also
have a 40" for about $200.00 more but, have found that the 30" does 95% of all
that you would need it for. Use ours every week end. Weighs in at 300#'s so
its cost is about $1.00 a pound.

Paid for its self after two days. Has saved many hours in making brackets and
cutting mat'l. Great rool former along with it.

You can cut longer sheets than 30" if you just cut most of the way thru the
sheet and than move it down using the blade as a guide.

Was able to trim our doors using this method and got a great fit.

I know $300.00 is a lot of money but, what's you time worth? ? ?

Steve H
Moose 213
->
-> I realized a need for a good way to make long cuts in thicker sheet after
-> giving up on a piece of .032 and taking it to a local HVAC shop. I want to
-> get some kind of shear, but don't really know what would be best. Obviously
-> a 12' hydraulic one is not realistic for by budget or garage. I see several
-> possible economical options in the Harbor freight catalog. They have a
-> pneumatic in-line hand shear that removes a 7/32" kerf for $40.00. There is
-> also an electric sheet metal shear that looks something like a jigsaw for
-> $32.00, and the third thing I was looking at is a throatless shear that is
-> bench mounted and hand operated, basically like a big pair of snips, for
-> $80.00.
-> Any comments on these or other options would be great.
-> Thanks
-> Jesse
->
->





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I agree with Drew about using the bandsaw for anything that'll fit. I found
that a small tooth, thin, wood cutting blade works better than metal cutting
blades. I have cut through small pieces of 1/4" aluminum with my bandsaw.
For large pieces I've had no trouble cutting through .032 with my pneumatic
shear. Get one of those swivel ends to attach the shear to your compressor
hose though. Otherwise the hose will catch on the piece you're working on
and pull the shear off your cut line (from personal $#*! knowledge). I use
thin cutting wheels on my Dremel on all sorts of cuts including large ones.
If you need to cut large holes or irregular shapes the Dremel is great! The
wheels are fragile and you break a lot of them, but they're cheap and do a
great job. I also love my pneumatic nibbling tool. I needed to chew a 2
inch hole out to about 2-1/4 recently. The nibbler made short work of that.
Nibbled out just short of my cut line and then filed the last little bit.

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: mike.davis@dcsol.com [mailto:mike.davis@dcsol.com]On Behalf Of
Jesse Jenks
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 8:06 PM
To: rebel-builders@dcsol.com
Subject: Tools: shear


I realized a need for a good way to make long cuts in thicker sheet after
giving up on a piece of .032 and taking it to a local HVAC shop. I want to
get some kind of shear, but don't really know what would be best. Obviously
a 12' hydraulic one is not realistic for by budget or garage. I see several
possible economical options in the Harbor freight catalog. They have a
pneumatic in-line hand shear that removes a 7/32" kerf for $40.00. There is
also an electric sheet metal shear that looks something like a jigsaw for
$32.00, and the third thing I was looking at is a throatless shear that is
bench mounted and hand operated, basically like a big pair of snips, for
$80.00.
Any comments on these or other options would be great.
Thanks
Jesse





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I would (and maybe still will) consider the 30" combo unit Steve mentioned.
A friend of mine has one too and seems to like it. In the meantime, I use my
radial arm saw, because a) i already own it and b) it does a fine job on
stuff up to around 050. Table saws are generally more common and I spose
would be fine too, but I just never used one and am very comfortable with the
arm saw. Use a chromoly fine tooth blade. One of the nice things is getting
straight and square cuts like you would in a sheer. I also used a HF nibbler
along a guide for cutting out my gas tank sections of main skins -- for that
the portability of a hand nibbler is good.
-Ben/ 496R -- flush riveting second wing (LE) this week (with time out to do
a top end on my ultralight engine ...curse the mess of 2-strokes)

I realized a need for a good way to make long cuts in thicker sheet after
giving up on a piece of .032 and taking it to a local HVAC shop. I want to
get some kind of shear, but don't really know what would be best. Obviously
a 12' hydraulic one is not realistic for by budget or garage. I see several
possible economical options in the Harbor freight catalog. They have a
pneumatic in-line hand shear that removes a 7/32" kerf for $40.00. There is
also an electric sheet metal shear that looks something like a jigsaw for
$32.00, and the third thing I was looking at is a throatless shear that is
bench mounted and hand operated, basically like a big pair of snips, for
$80.00.
Any comments on these or other options would be great.
Thanks
Jesse

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Thanks for all the input guys.
Jesse





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Jesse;
I agree with Steve 200%! I have a 40" and a 12", but a 30" would be
fine, I don't get much good out of my 12".
Larry Luckinbill
Moose




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Well if we are going to brag about lengths ....I have an air powered 52"
in the shop and an air powered 150" in the hangar... for when I need to
shear length wise on one of those big sheets! The big one has enough guts to
cut full 12 feet on .063, 6 feet on .090 and 4 feet on .125. Also an 8' and
12' brake. All collected at auctions for less than what they are worth for
scrap weight.

Cheers,
Wayne

----- Original Message -----
From: <Skytrucks@aol.com>
To: <rebel-builders@dcsol.com>
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2005 10:25 PM
Subject: Re: Tools: shear

Jesse;
I agree with Steve 200%! I have a 40" and a 12", but a 30" would

be

fine, I don't get much good out of my 12".
Larry Luckinbill
Moose




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