Air Nibbler advice sought

I got a Chinese air nibbler as a gift a few years ago. The first time I tried to cut #18 steel, the die broke. I have not been able to find a replacement.

The few times I used it before the die broke, it seemed extremely useful, although it put out millions of needle sharp crescents from the cutting process.

Bob

I have _two_ of the Chinese ones (bought from machine mart in the UK). The reason I have two is that the first broke where the slot was machined into the punch for the scotch yoke to ride in, I bought the second to get me out of the hole that left me in while the shop sent it off for repair. The second one had the end of the punch come off within the first half inch of use, I went back to the shop and got quite unpleasant, they replaced it when I stopped anyone getting to the shop counter. In both cases the cause of the problem was poor surface finish on heat treated parts, or poor heat treating (e.g.. sharp cornered rectangular slots causing stress raisers). The nibblers were being used on mild steel at the limit of the specified thickness (1.2mm/18 SWG in this case). The shop _did_ replace the first one in the end, but I haven't been back there since.

I'll let you draw your own conclusions. Even when you make the right decision and go for something with a name, assume that the punch and die are consumable and get a spare set at the start, It could save you a few days halfway through a project...

Mark Rand RTFM

I hate the sharp slivers that mine produces, so I try to avoid using it. I understand that some nibblers generate a crumpled strip of waste, rather than thousands of sharp pieces, a much better idea.

Anything that I would use an air nibbler for, I would probably prefer to use a plasma cutter.

Richard

Joseph Gw> I'm looking to buy an air nibbler for sheet metal. Mostly aluminium and

I've also found units made by Jet (and various lookalikes) and Florida Pneumatic. People have any experience with these?

And some electric nibblers from Bosch that look very good, and are $400 and up.

This seems to be the key. When a nibbler dies, it seems that the punch is what breaks, so availability and price of punch and die seems to be the key issue.

Of the Chinese units, the one sold by machinemart in the UK may be the only survivor: . Is this the unit? It only claims to cut to 1.2mm, versus 1.6mm.

Thanks to all who have responded.

Joe Gwinn

I have a Bosch electric, and it works great. I bought Bosch because all my other Bosch tools are still working, after years of use. And because parts and repair are available.

It does indeed leave a huge mess of really sharp little crescents of metal, which stick to any shoe sole, and get tracked everywhere. And it takes out about a 3/8" wide kerf- thats a lot of material.

I also have both air and electric hand shears, and many times prefer them to the nibbler- no kerf.

But I think for this type of sheet metal cutting, you really ought to be saving your lawn mowing money for a plasma cutter- it works much better, faster, and more controllable, on any metal.

I've got the cheap pneumatic HF unit, I bought spare punch and die sets from Princess Auto when they briefly had a presence in the U.S. just outside Omaha. This unit has done the job for the thin sheets I've used it on, worked great for modifying some PC cases. Haven't used it on anything close to the rated capacity, seemed to me that for thick stuff I should be using something else. The punchings can be nasty, ferrous ones are best picked up with the old magnet in a baggie trick. If you really want to use heavy stock, this probably isn't the unit to use. The sort I have uses a round punch with a angled notch turned in it, can cut any direction. Looked like it wouldn't be too hard to turn up on a lathe. Sounds like a sewing machine in use.

My dad used several different types of electric cutters in the elctrical trade, brought home several sets of cutters where the guys had tried to use them on heavy boxes, they didn't survive intact. Most of these are best used on light sheet steel, like electrical chassis stuff, gutter-weight material and the like. If you have need to nibble heavy stock and /or hard stuff, the units are going to cost a bunch and the cutter longevity will be short.. They really aren't meant for production use, just modifying existing stuff, one-off prototyping and the like.

Stan