Cut Metal With A Plate Shear
By Benjamen Johnson
If you need to cut some metal fast, you might want to look at a plate shear — it’ll cut sheet metal, plate stock, or round stock. To get you started, Shop Fox sells two models of plate shears that would work well in any small shop.
A compound lever provides enough mechanical advantage for the ground and hardened knives to cut 3/16″ plate or 1/2″ rod — but before using the shears you should really mount them to a sturdy bench or to the floor.
The 8″ model sports a 24″ handle and can make cuts up to 8″ long, while the 12″ model has a 32″ handle and can make cuts up to 12″ long. You can get the 8″ shears for as little as $80. The 12″ version runs about $115.
Plate Shear [Woodstock International]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
8″ Shear Via Amazon(B000JLJHM2) [What’s This?] [What's This?]
12″ Shear Via Amazon(B000JLHGCU) [What’s This?] [What's This?]
June 27th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
And if you work in the “persuasion” business, they work great on fingers, toes, and other extremities!
May 24th, 2009 at 1:38 am
I haven’t inspected these specific tools, but I have looked over the chinese plate shears at Harbor Freight. Fit, finish, and blade tolerances were too sloppy for my tastes.