Need advice on sheet metal thickness and aviation snips…
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Need advice on sheet metal thickness and aviation snips for a personal project.
Apologies if this is the wrong sub, but you seemed like the right people to ask.
Squirrels and raccoons are eating all of the bird seed from our feeders. They've chewed through plastic baffles, climbed around 18" cone baffles, and premade >18" metal baffles cost more than making my own. So I'm making my own.
I plan to make them out of galvanized steel sheet, but all I have to cut it with are aviation snips (offset straight cut by Midway). I've used them on 26-gauge galvanized sheet for a previous project, and the snips handle that very easily, curved and straight cuts, and being offset straight cut snips I can decide which side the offcut curls depending on the pitch that I hold the snips, so I have no problem using these in general. Plus I can't afford any additional tools, so this is what we're working with.
I'm basically stuck deciding what thickness material to use. I've got the baffle templates designed and the radius of the curved cuts will be quite large (about 17"), but I've never cut anything thicker than this 26-gauge galvanized I mentioned so I don't know how thicker material feels and behaves. I want these baffles to be very strong to resist the weight of the raccoons and last as long as possible, but obviously I want to actually be able to cut the stuff using these snips. Seeing as they're rated for maximum 18-gauge mild steel, I'm likely going to avoid 18- and 20-gauge because I'm guessing that'd be a pain (correct me if I'm wrong), so I'm trying to decide between 22- and 24-gauge (again, correct me if that's a bad idea).
As this is just a personal project, I don't mind taking the cuts slow if they're a little bit difficult. I'm in no hurry. I just don't want to end up with floppy garbage in the end if the material is too thin, or ragged cuts and broken wrists if it's too thick. Any advice is welcome, regarding both the advised thickness of the material for this particular use, and how difficult cutting different thicknesses of galvanized steel sheet might be with aviation snips. Thank you.
TL;DR: What's the thickest galvanized steel sheet I can reasonably, neatly cut using aviation snips?
#industry
source
Apologies if this is the wrong sub, but you seemed like the right people to ask.
Squirrels and raccoons are eating all of the bird seed from our feeders. They've chewed through plastic baffles, climbed around 18" cone baffles, and premade >18" metal baffles cost more than making my own. So I'm making my own.
I plan to make them out of galvanized steel sheet, but all I have to cut it with are aviation snips (offset straight cut by Midway). I've used them on 26-gauge galvanized sheet for a previous project, and the snips handle that very easily, curved and straight cuts, and being offset straight cut snips I can decide which side the offcut curls depending on the pitch that I hold the snips, so I have no problem using these in general. Plus I can't afford any additional tools, so this is what we're working with.
I'm basically stuck deciding what thickness material to use. I've got the baffle templates designed and the radius of the curved cuts will be quite large (about 17"), but I've never cut anything thicker than this 26-gauge galvanized I mentioned so I don't know how thicker material feels and behaves. I want these baffles to be very strong to resist the weight of the raccoons and last as long as possible, but obviously I want to actually be able to cut the stuff using these snips. Seeing as they're rated for maximum 18-gauge mild steel, I'm likely going to avoid 18- and 20-gauge because I'm guessing that'd be a pain (correct me if I'm wrong), so I'm trying to decide between 22- and 24-gauge (again, correct me if that's a bad idea).
As this is just a personal project, I don't mind taking the cuts slow if they're a little bit difficult. I'm in no hurry. I just don't want to end up with floppy garbage in the end if the material is too thin, or ragged cuts and broken wrists if it's too thick. Any advice is welcome, regarding both the advised thickness of the material for this particular use, and how difficult cutting different thicknesses of galvanized steel sheet might be with aviation snips. Thank you.
TL;DR: What's the thickest galvanized steel sheet I can reasonably, neatly cut using aviation snips?
#industry
source
| 1,000 mlx | |
| 3 | |
| 0 |