Thread: Drill powered piston shear

My brother purchased himself a 'nibbler' that attaches to a drill, it cost him about 250 I think with spare cutters, not sure if this is what you are describing. Anyway he loves his and it is good for 2.5mm stainless and all the currugated iron you can throw at it!

Supercheap is probably just a remake of this one but if all you want to do is the occasional bit of tin then it should be quite adequate!

Hope this helps

Pete

Quality varies enourmously(sic) on these, even when the price is the same. I bought one that lasted about 60cm (2 feet) before it had a fatal fracture - the rotor that powers the reciprocation cracked. A mate bought one, seemingly the same, and has never had a bit of trouble.

So, buy from someone who is going to be 'around' and keep your receipt

Or buy one of the self contained nibblers from Makita or Bosch.

Hi Doughboy
For perhaps less than the price of a cheapee nibbler proceed to a second hand tool dealer or the markets and buy a pair of good quality curved tin snips and maybe a second set of smaller pointed ones- - -Record or footprint are just a couple of brands,but there are others.
Mark out the hole with a fine line permanent marker.Sharpie is one name the comes to mind - available at newsagent.

Mark a second circle inside maybe 10mm or even less inside of the cut line and drill a series of holes -say 6mm diam until you :rough out the inner circle.
If the drill route sounds too hard,then maybe one of the new 2mm low spark cutter grinder wheels fitted on your 4" angle grinder and cut radila lines very carefully out to marked hole

Get the point of a second pair of cheapy cutters through one of the drilled holes and hack out the inner circle.

Remove the bulk of the material inside the drilled until maybe a 10mm band remains.you should be able to use the curved snips to easily remove the curved 10mm band. Snips need to be reasonably small if cirle is 4". Sheetmetal is sharp - take care.The closer the drill circle to the cut line the easier to remove, I have found.Its a good idea to have a practice on some scrap though.

Does it help?
Grahame

Just buy a set of curved tinsnips, easy to use.

Originally Posted by Bob38S

G'day all,
not sure if this is the correct place but I guess you would know.
Has anyone tried/bought/used the piston type of metal shear which can be attached to your drill. They are available from SupaCheap, TradeTools and a number of different sources. Replacement pins are also available for them. The prices seem to range from $80 - $120.

I'm looking at relocating my dust extractor outside the shed and need a neat 4" hole through the metal wall. If the above is not much good - any ideas.
Thanks,
Bob

Hi Bob,

What is the metal thickness?
What type of metal is it?
Is the metal surface flat, or corregated?

Regards
David

I not long ago cut a 5" hole through the wall of my colorbond shed to run the outlet of my cyclone through, marked out the hole about 1/4" oversize, drilled a couple of holes to get the points of my cheap red handled tinsnips (from Bunnings) snipped along the line, and then used a length of 1/2" garden hose (with a cut along the length) and stuck it over the sharp edge, ran the 5" flex though it, Beyoodifull.

Grahame

It would help if I needed to punch a hole through the wall of my shed but alas I do not. Mistaken identity but that is ok.

Yeah if you are only doing the one hole then tinsnips are definitely the way to go. If you are going to get the use out of a nibbler then the drill attachment is the way to go.

The proper self contained nibblers are fantastic but only when used on flat surfaces but add corrugations to the mix and you have a different matter all together. I am not sure if there are some out there that the cutter head can be turned but mine is fixed and a bloody pain in the butt when tackling corrugated iron.

Of course these are only my opinions.

Pete

Many thanks all for the prompt replies.
The metal is the usual colourbond shed wall and the name I was struggling for was "nibbler".
I have had a bit of a go [on some scrap] with tin snips but this is obviously not a tool for me - is there some Darkside trick I'm not aware of?? - they were the "curve cutting" type - I have L, R and straight.
I wouldn't have a great deal of work for the nibbler but thought [like most of us] that it could come in handy in the future.
When I built the shed I added a full width porch with an enclosed back with the idea of enclosing the DE in a box in the back corner. I found, at Tradelink, a 100mm collar [x2] which I intend to pop rivet back to back to form the hole and to hold the solid piece of PVC which goes through the wall. I figured that it would be better to go "solid" through the wall in case there is vibration on flex pipe which would lead to failure.
Again, thanks for you assistance,
Bob