As you can see in the photo, there are many different cutters, or tin snips, for cutting sheet metal. Although you can often force any cutter to cut anything, there is a proper cutter that makes each kind of cut best. The colour coded handles help to get the right one out of the toolbox. The y...
Although we know that the professionally installed ducting in our houses, like the heating ducts, are all made out of formed sheet metal, when we install ducts ourselves we tend to use the convenient flex ducting. A straight sheet metal duct and a straight flex duct of the same size will not mov...
Professional sheet metal workers can make long straight bends in sheet metal by the use of a machine called a 'break'. One part of the machine clamps down on the sheet while the second lifts the rest of the sheet up to some angle. A home made break can be as simple as a 2x4 clamped down over th...
One viewer needs an extra heat grill in the kitchen, which is right above the furnace room, so running ducts is not a problem. The question is, how do you attach to the existing ductwork?You do it with what we call a "boot".You will have to cut a square hole into the large heating duct and the f...
Need to work with sheet metal? Here are a few working tips.Sheet metal is best cut with sheet metal shears. You may not realise it but the handles of the shears are generally colour coded to help you grab the right ones. The problem is that as you cut the metal, the two pieces tend to get in t...
The heavy tapered tool you see in the photo is an original soldering iron. You would heat it up in an oven or with a torch and use it to melt solder. This technique is sometimes still used by sheet metal workers today.Most soldering irons today are electrical, and you can even get them with car...
We visited with Wayne Walsh, a professional sheet metal worker and checked out all his hand custom tools that he uses to shape something as simple as a plumbing stack flange for the roof.In the photo you see a simple pair of crimpers, the right tool to put a pleated male end on a cut piece of ven...
If you don't already know pop-rivets, this is one tool you should become familiar with. The pop rivet looks a bit like a funny nail. You drill precise holes through two pieces of thin material that you want to join together. This is commonly used for all kinds of sheet metal work, but can ...
There are times when each of us has to do a little work outside of our own specialty. We usually know how to get by in someone else?s trade but we often don?t have the specialized tools that make things go so much easier. Sheet metal work is one of those area that I do only when I have too,...
What do you do with the wood plane in the first photo? Not only does the base adjust to different curves, but can be reversed for outside curves. This is the standard plane for making barrel staves and wagon wheels. Although I have never made a wagon wheel I have used it for finishing off ...
