Punching Holes in Sheetmetal

Steve B · 2011-05-07T03:49:54+00:00

My wife wants me to make some sconce lights out of sheets of sheet metal. I can get paintlock of various thicknesses, but some is rather thick for hand punching.I want to punch squares or rectangles to get a stairstep southwest Indian design type of thing, or variations on that theme.Are there any punches made in a type that has a punch and a matching backup to help cut the design? I want to do these myself with a hammer, or perhaps there is something available that is run by air or hydraulic? Something that won't cost an arm and a leg, and punch different shapes of holes, squares, diamonds, rectangles, mostly about 1" max dimension in any direction, with the holes being smaller, and they could be drilled.TIASteveHeart surgery pending?Heart Surgery Survival Guide

May 07, 2011 23 Replies

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Brian Lawson 15 years ago

EDM comes to mind.

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Winston 15 years ago

Yeah!

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--Winston

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dan 15 years ago

Steve B wrote in rec.crafts.metalworking on Sun, 8 May 2011 08:10:26 -0700:

Definitely over buy. I got the PowerMax30 even though I was getting it for 16 gage sheet metal(16 gage is a bitch to cut with snips). But once you have it, you will find all sorts of uses.

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