Choosing the Right Sheet Metal Cutting Tool

By far one of the oldest and most popular cutting solutions, tinner snips or ‘tin-snips’ are a hand-actuated tool for cutting sheet metal. Typically made from drop forged carbon steel, Tin-snips come in two main types; Straight and a Duckbilled Patterns. As the name suggests, straight patterned tin snips are designed to cut straight lines and mild curves, whereas Duckbilled patterns (also known as trojan-patterns) are better suited for curves and circular shapes.

Straight Pattern snips can typically cut material between 24-16 gauge (0.5mm-1.4mm), whereas duckbilled patterns may struggle on material over 25 gauge (0.508mm).

Tin Snips are an inexpensive solution, primarily because of their simple and robust design requiring the user to exert force to cut the material. At the same time, this is the tools Achilles heel, it’s seriously hard work if you’re cutting anything other than light material. Alternatively the more expensive Compound-Action Snips allow you to exert a higher amount of force, making it easier to cut. These typically handle material like Aluminium up to 18 Gauge (1.1mm), Mild Steel up to 24 Gauge (0.5mm) and Stainless Steel up to 26 Gauge (0.457mm). 

Power Shears are a lot like Tin-Snips on steroids. A sharpened blade cuts rapidly against a fixed blade and cleanly slices through the material as it’s advanced through. Power Shears typically come in both a single and double cutting variant, the latter using two separate cutting blades which leaves a wider kerf and cutting waste.

One of the primary advantages of power shears is their cutting capacity, which lends the tool to heavy-duty jobs with a typical cutting capacity of 10 SWG (3.2mm) depending on the model. Power Shears typically struggle with curves, and if pushed beyond their limits may leave jagged or sharp edges. Power Shears are also known to distort (warp or bend) the material being cut, making it a poor choice if the job needs to be kept flat or its shape maintained. While double cutting shears are known to produce less distortion, they similarly struggle with curves and are not as heavy-duty as single cutting shears.

Angle grinders, also known as a side or disk grinder is a handheld power tool for grinding and polishing. If we’re being honest, we know you already knew that. But with the addition of a cut-off wheel, an angle grinder can be turned into a powerful metal cutting tool.

Generally, there are two types of cutting wheels, the Type 1 Flat Wheel and the Type 27 Depressed Centre Wheel. The Type 1 wheel offers greater versatility especially when cutting profiles. The Type 27 is better suited to tight corners and overhangs, the depressed centre providing an extra degree of clearance. 

The rule of thumb when choosing a cut-off wheels is the thicker the material, the thicker the disk you should get, however, keep in mind that the thicker the wheel the slower it will cut, as well as generating more friction, heat and often discolouring the material. When cutting Aluminium it is recommended to apply cutting lubricant to prevent the blade from chipping.

One primary advantage of the angle grinders is its suitability for cutting straight lines. Unlike other cutting tools, the large cutting surface of angle grinders makes it ideal for cutting in straight lines. The flip side of this is that it makes it significantly more difficult and time consuming to cut curves. Typically angle grinders are not known to distort the sheet material (unless it is very thin), however, it produces sparks and waste in the form of a fine dust, as well as creating sharp edges that have to be tidied.

A nibbler is a sheet metal cutting tool that as the name suggests, ‘nibbles’ through sheet material by turning a rotational drive into a linear ‘up-down’ motion. Nibblers typically come as a standalone tool or a drill-attachable unit, using the drive from a power, battery or pneumatic drill to run the tool. Drill attachment nibblers have been around since the 1980s and typically have cutting capacities of 16 gauge (1.6mm) on tougher material like corrugated Iron and Mild Steel, and a cutting capacity of 14 SWG (2mm) on softer materials like Aluminium or Copper. Typically standalone nibblers offer greater cutting capacities than their drill-attachable counterparts, however, they tend to command a significant price premium.

Nibblers (like our Professional Nibbler) are a versatile and manoeuvrable cutting tool ideally suited to creating curves, complex shapes and circles. Nibblers can also cut straight lines, but benefit from the addition of a straight cutting attachment.

Nibblers are suited to both flat and complex profiles, such as corrugated roofing, piping, gutters or automotive body panels.

One of the main benefits of nibblers over other tools is the fact they do not distort the material as they cut or leave sharp edges thanks to the chamfered edge on the cutting die. This makes nibblers ideal for fast and repeatable work as it saves time you would otherwise spend cleaning up sharp edges and making the cut consistent. While nibblers don’t produce sparks, they produce cutting waste in the form of small ‘chips’ and have a cutting kerf to consider when making a cut.

A plasma cutter is a tool that cuts through electrically conductive materials by accelerating a jet of hot plasma onto the material. Plasma cutters typically come as a portable unit, however, plasma cutting CNC machines are also available. Plasma cutting is an effective way of cutting curved, angular and complex shapes and is perfect for thicker materials such as 1.5” Inch (38mm) Steel. Plasma cutting is not known for leaving clean or burr-free edges and requires significant tidying once the cut is complete.

 While a powerful and versatile cutting tool, plasma cutters are typically an expensive and dangerous cutting solution operating at significant temperatures and requiring adequate safety equipment and precautions.