Shearing Aluminum

Is the sheet clamped down?

wws

No. Could it be that simple?

I thought I remember seeing these types of shear being used free-hand or without the sheet being clamped.

Cass

Watch the way that you hold it and make sure that you keep it as close to 90 degrees to the sheet as possible. They get pretty cantankerous when you get some tilt on them and will hang constantly. I finally gave up and made a saddle type support block for the handle of mine to give me a better cut.

Craig C. snipped-for-privacy@ev1.net

"Cass" wrote

try clamping in in your vies.

Indeed, when I use mine, I'm constantly "hunting" for the right attitude (pitch and yaw) to keep it from hanging.

Ahh - can we see a picture?

Bob

Clamping isn't mandatory, but chasing the dips and waves of a piece of sheet metal as you are applying the pressure to engage the shears does make it a little more challenging. Clamp or support if you can. Polish the underside of the fixed shear blades. Smooth them out so that they don't present a surface that will scratch the material that you are working on, and with soft aluminum that means they need to have almost a polished, mirror surface. Then, use a paint brush and paint the surface of the material with oil on either side of the cut line where the shear will contact. Also, make sure that the underside of the shear is oiled. ATF will work ok, WD40 is a little too thin and tends to run off before you can shear, but does flush the slivers of sheared material, almost like dust, that gather in the shear blades. I've had good luck with 10w40 too and some luck with gear oil, but it tends to suck the shear down and makes it too hard to push forward. If you get it right, you will find that the shear pulls itself into the cut and you are having trouble keeping up with it. You will also be able to control the cut down to around .03 of the line pretty easily. Craig's advice on the angle is good too, and is more important than lube, but they both have to work right to get a good, easy cut.

I have had luck using the stick lubricant for bandsaw blades.

Lubricate the cutter to the aluminum. Aluminum tends to pack onto the cutters and this can be your problem. The heating of the cutter tip is probably causing this to happen after a bit rather than right away and the gumminess just gets started then.

-- Bob May Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less. Works evevery time it is tried!