Shearing 18 gage stainless

If you have much of this to do, I would sure look into these. I use the daylights out of mine.

If you can find a Di-Acro 12" shear, I think you'd be all set. They will handle 16 gauge steel, so I think 18 gauge stainless would be OK. 4" might even work with one of the large corner notching shears.

One possible issue with the Jet shears is that the metal may tend to squirm a bit, giving you a curved cut. You can fix this by rigging up some sort of clamping system. You'd probably want to rig up a good right angle fence anyway, and you could add a clamping set up to that.

Doug White

Do you have a plasma cutter? I wouldn't discount plasma without a quick test, according the the reference chart in the manual for my Powermax

1000, on 16ga stainless the optimum travel speed is 406 IPM or nearly 7" per second. At those speeds you're not going to get much of a heat affected area at all. Used with a good guide strip I think you would have a good chance of getting acceptable results.

I have a 16 ga nibbler made by Black & Decker that would do it.

I thought so too but it doesn't seem to be so. This stuff is tough, more like 12 gage mild steel. But I only need a 4" cut so a Di-Acro

12" might do the job if I can find one.

Yes.

I'll see if I can find a Jet to try tomorrow. I can modify it with an over-center or cam-action clamping platen bar and angle fence if necessary or expedient. It may well be so.

Don,

There's a nice Pexto four foot shear located about 75 miles west of you. Fits easily in a trailer or pickup truck. Email me if you want it.

Karl

If you look at capacity specs for most types of squaring shears, you'll see that thickness capacity that is quoted for mild steel is usually cut by 50% for use with stainless. As you have noted, stainless is tough to cut, and gets worse rapidly with slight dulling of the shear blade. The JET unit looks like a good bet, but if I were doing it, I'd probably buy the heavier-duty unit (3/16" capacity). Interesting that they state that the blade is made from stainless, hardened and tempered. Check out the warranty specifically as well; the manual has 1 year printed inside, but the website says 2 years... I think the DiAcro 12" shear is nice, but it wouldn't do the job for long. You'd end up breaking it trying to cut that stainless with the 7- ft handle extension you'd need...:-)

Mine's only 1200 lbs or so- stretches the definition of portable, but yeah, they're somewhat movable.

Dave

I've used the Enco version of the 8" shear on 1/8" mild steel and seen the same problem. If you have one person heaving on the lever and another one guiding the plate you might get a clean straight cut. The curved-blade-side cutoff strip is strongly twisted and can force the plate out of line if it hits anything. I'd plasma-cut about 1/2" oversize, then shear.

You could bolt the shear to a plank at the edge of a pallet and put another pallet on top beside it for a work surface level with the blade.

Jim Wilkins

At LEAST 50%. If asked to suggest/find a shear, I underate by 75%, because I know they are not going to keep the blades sharp.

Gunner

One of our posters snipped-for-privacy@aol.com is one of the sharpest guys I know about shearing, the machines themselves, and is a Jet and Wilton dealer with a very very low markup.

Not only does he sell, but he runs a machine shop/fab shop with lots of shears.

Gunner

Ive got an elderly 52" Pexto Id part with cheap. Needs some TLC. Stomp shear converted to hydraulics.

Rated at 16ga mild steel however.

Bakersfield Ca.

Roger that!

That's kinda what I thought. I've located a nice little 12" Di-Acro here in town, but rated only for 16 gage ms so I don't think it'll hack it.

I think so too. If we go with the Jet I'd certainly consider making both of these improvements.

Rough cut then shear might be an excellent idea. My friend doesn't have a plasma (and I'm not loaning mine out for a big job) but he might be able to use a chopsaw -- or maybe even buy a small plasma for the job. Even a cheap HF unit might suffice for a few hundred rough cuts in .047" SS.

Right. He's good at contriving field-expedient work stations.

We'll see! I located a 12" Di-Acro here in town today. Soon as I can corral my friend we'll bring a sample piece to try it. The seller said he'd be glad to let us do that. He thinks it'll do the job. I'm not so sure but I'm sure willing to be shown.

"Acceptable" here means about perfect. Cosmetics are very important in this job. If plasma were used, edge cleanup would definitely be necessary. Not ruling anything out yet, but I think a shear has a better chance of working well.

I'm thinking a decent 4 x 36 belt sander with a ceramic grit belt in

80 or 100 grit might be a very good thing to have at the jobside. Those ceramic grit belts cut thin stainless like cheese and run very cool. Edge cleanup and squaring to within .010" of the line might be very quick and easy with one.

These guys are woodworkers, not metalworkers, so I'm trying to guide them in a direction that will work for them. It's a fairly big job. Jobbing it out would certainly be considered, but the cost would probably be prohibitive even if we could find anyone that'd want the job. Doing first-class work is priority 1 but they are definitely trying to make a living.

Welcome to my world...

I've been chopping strips from .063 to .080. Then cleaning up the burnt ragged with a flapper wheel. Then filing the edges smooth and clean.

Save yourself! Find another way!