Nibblers are very good, but have two disadvantages – they have a wide kerf, and they leave a trail of murderous spikey crescent shaped punchings on the floor which stick in your boot soles (and your dogs paws if you have such a thing) and then shed themselves on your carpets and in the van.

Shetack saws regularly turn up on auction sites.

I would second Jason and the angle grinder. For straight lines, clamp a guide in place.

I last used a nibbler when I was doing my apprenticeship in aircraft engineering, we used an air powered on for shaping skins in aircraft rebuilds, B****y crescent moon shaped bits of Alclad all over the place, devil of a stuff to sweep up, and dig out of the soles of your shoes.

Ian S C

Edited By Ian S C on 28/11/2015 08:44:51

Interesting airframe, I assume it's a Keilkraft

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 28/11/2015 10:12:41

I've cut 3mm steel with a jigsaw. Slow and noisy, angle grinder is faster but best done outside..

Neil

My standard tool for sheet metal is angle grinder with thin blade- 1mm. I use this on just about everything. Hand nibbler is really only any good for very thin stuff, and hard work. Hand held jigsaw with a metal cutting blade is good up to about 6mm steel and maybe 12mm ally. I mark of on the back side and put cutting oil or grease on the back line for lube. I find ,on my saw, that it works best with little or no oscillation. If you can get speed and feed right sometimes the swarf comes off in a ribbon, very satisfying.

Up to about 1.5mm I use Makita electric shears. They are my go-to tool for speed. There is a little bit of a knacjk to these, to hit the "sweet spot" where forward movement is easy, and you do need to exercise positive management of the curling waste strip on longer cuts. Electric shears remove a thin strip to create a channel which forms the cut. They are great for straight or gently curved cuts.

I also use a Makita nibbler for up to 1mm sheet, and that works well on tight curves down to about 50mm diameter. As Ian S C says, the nibbler generates millions of tiny crescent-shaped SHARP waste, and leave a SHARP edge just perfect for slicing flesh.

I also use a pair of good hand shears, up to about 2mm (tough on the wrists at that thickness. I prefer my big Gilbows for that, but tight curves need the aircraft shears which grip one edge more securely, but do leave tiny serrations on the top surface just next to the edge of the cut. The Gilbows tend to slip sideways just a little on the tight curves (Speed and old habits means I am using straight-jawed Gilbows, rather than the curved-jaw versions which might be better for curves).

Fine-toothed jigsaw blades work well. Coarse-toothed certainly do not. Support the sheet next to the edge of the cut.

Marcus

I don't know if this is relevant but I had to cut some 1/4" brass sheet. I started with a hand held hack saw but the depth of cut was insufficient. Next I tried an angle grinder with a cutting disc but it clogged. What was successful was a jig saw with a fairly coarse blade. It was slow but it did the job.

Come back "Monadex", all is forgiven. Well up to about 16SWG.

Regards Ian.

I've used jigsaw (bosch 150 model) to cut 1mm steel. Turn the oscillating action off(or it can mean returning saw to Bosch – just don't ask!).Works well. You must support the cut near the blade. I found putting hardboard over the top of the sheet (clamped) and cutting through both worked OK. Fine blade is needed and turn the speed down. Can cut quite good curves upto about 70mm radius but need a thin (cutting edge to blade back blade) to do that and they're fragile.

Vibration is a problem and tingling hands afterwards!

Have got some 1mm angle grinder blades but not used in anger yet. I second the comments re nibblers-you also need quite a good air supply for the compressor ones-my little compressor just could not cope. Thought of getting a bigger compressor but then got really knarked about the half moon swarf everywhere so switched to using the jigsaw and am happy with that.