I just bought an air powered shears and I have to tell you. What a cool piece of equipment! That thing thing slices though 16ga sheet with the greatest of ease and it also cuts 14ga Ali.

I was using a jigsaw and it was hell, so I decided to give the shears a try.

Anyone else use one?
Later,

Graber

Geez, there's all kinds of cheap ones on eBay I was looking at these and at paint guns, too. What kind did you buy? The Bargain Jim's ones look OK to me.

With this thing, do you think you can make do without hand snips, nibblers, etc.?

Pete

Pete,

I hate to sound like an ad for anything, , but this item is really . I wish I had bought it long ago.

I bought mine on eBay (I love that website, maybe I should buy stock.)

It's a generic brand, but then again, it was only $29.00.

For a part-timer like myself I simply don't think you can beat it. The nice thing about this one is that it can cut the thicker stock. Most of the shears I was finding elsewhere were only good down to 18ga, which is wimpy IMO. This one goes to 14ga. And it does cut 14ga, I have already tried it. It likes 16ga better tho.

Take a look here http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2349259764

Sounds like shear pleasure

[Edited on 1/10/03 by CairB]

i held off buying one as i expected it to mark the metal at the end of each shear point ...so I used a hand nibbler


atb

steve

You know Steve, you're absolutely right.

I noticed that it doesn't finish a corner cut very well. It cuts a little past. Maybe that's operator error. It may be that one would need to end the cut just prior and then finish it off by hand. Now for full cuts it wouldn't matter.

I was thinking about getting one of these, but they're £42 from Machine Mart (hadn't considered ebay).

What's the air consumption? (doesn't tell you on the MM website)

David

there are air nibblers - but they seem to stop at 16 guage - and I needed 14 for my alu body parts

Machine mart also do a similarly limited nibbler for a drill.

Larger Halfords also stock a selection of air nibblers and shears.

Using the 6 quid hand nibbler is cheap but a tad time consuming!


atb

steve

I have a drill-mounted nibbler (ooer!) but it's a pig to steer in a straight line (even with a straight edge) and it leaves evil little crescent-shaped swarf all over the place.

David

I managed to get a straight line with my drill/nibbler,i held the ali in a workmate and clamped a length of steel a couple of mm's away from the desired cutting line.

It was a bit of a handfull to do with one pair of hands,i comondered junior to hold the sheet still but it did give a good result

The nibbler just rests on the steel and away you go.

I got one of those drill nibblers from MM too, I managed to get a straight line by clamping a straight piece of steel to the sheet and following that. I cut all my sheet with this and I'll probably do the aluminium too (if I ever source any).

My nibble was cheap because the bloke typed in 14.07 instead of 41.07 on the debit card machine. I later got a letter asking me to pay the difference but I lost it

David,

I've got one of the MM shears similar to http://www.machinemart.co.uk/product.asp?p=000310940

air consumption is quoted as 4 cfm which sounds about right.

It's good for serious long length chopping, it made short work of halving the 1mx2m 16s gauge steel sheet that I bought that remained unused at the end of the build

It's spec quotes 5/64" max on aluminium and I gave up trying to cut aluminium sheets that I had that were just over this limit that I was using for various covers and dash.

I can't help thinking that a nibbler probably has more use during the build. I keep seeing drill nibbler's at Kit car shows, but to date my wallet has stayed shut...are they worth buying? .. Probably not now I'm on the road

Cheers,

Colin

i was considering getting a nibbler, about 40 quid at MM was the one i was looking at. Ended up getting the plasma cutter, but i think a nibbler has uses as well. Plasma cutter is a bit violent and messy for cutting inside the garage, might get a nibbler to take bars off the chassis etc...

I've got something similar to this,

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?id=13211&ts=92729

but more like a circular saw, it has adjustable depth cutting and chew's through ali and steel of all thicknesses (well up to a point - won't cut through a 10cm2 block).

Bloody handy as you can still cut through something when you can't get to the back of the panel easily, like exhaust holes!

Buy the MM nibbler !!
Its saved me hours of work with a jigsaw.
Out of all the tools that i've bought during my build, this is the one i'd really miss.
..............well, obviuosly i'd struggle to have made my chassis and bones without my welder & grinder, but you know what I mean

I got the nibbler from Newark show 3 years ago and it's been invaluable. It's the yellow one, can't remember the make and it's done loads of panels and been used on 3 different builds. Remember to oil the cutting line and it'll last for ages. Mine was £30 with a spare cutting head and it uses the same ones as the MM tool. The toenail clippings are a bit of a drawback but they sweep up easy enough.

yours, Pete.

How thick of a panel will those nibblers cut?

I can certainly see how the nibbler would be better at cutting irregular shapes. The shears I have does fantastic at straight lines, but won't turn a corner at all.