Thread: irrregular holes in sheet metal

I do know what I am talking about here as I am a qualified coppersmith who also did sheetmetal as part of my apprenticeship, I could cut a 20mm hole in .6 or .8mm gal in less than a minute and that includes the time to pierce a hole for the snips to start and do it cleanly too without burrs.

Where did they say speed and efficiency? Because I certainly didn't see them say that anywhere.

Get on with it julianx, do your own thing!!!!!!

It doesn't have to be all or nothing, does it?

Identify what you now want to accomplish.

Select tools accordingly.

Discover what else they can do.

Modify the design to suit the tools.

Repeat as necessary.

Cheers,
Joe

Hmm, this thread has re-arranged itself like magic. Must be a full moon

Have you thought of using a small cold chisel, hammer and anvil?

A stick welder cuts irregular holes on light stuff

In material that light, a set of Jewellers Curved Jaw Shears or Snips like these make short of those sort of holes.

Yeah jewelers snips are useful for a lot of what I'm doing ( I have a couple of pairs) although I find it difficult to get clean cuts on some of the tight curves that I need to do.

The nibblers that a couple of posters have suggested have much smaller cutting heads than the ones I've used in the past...I might have to get one of them.

Thanks all

I am in no doubt you are an artist you can visualise the 3 dimensional view of a hole made by a 30-30 maybe under the right legal conditions is a winner!

Yes I have no trouble visualising holes... and entire art works for that matter, this does however present a problem when it comes to selling the art work though...people don't tend to like parting with their hard earned cash for a 'visualisation' of a sculpture....
...Hmm on second thoughts there are plenty of idiots out there, you might be onto something, wanna help me realise then financial benefits of 'unactualised visualisations'