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Pexto vs Tennsmith jump shears

AndyF

Stainless
Joined
Nov 3, 2003
Location
Phelps, NY, USA
I picked up a Pexto 152 (52" wide) jump shear that is well used and will need a fair amount of TLC. Today I found a Tennsmith T36 36" shear that is in like new condition - it was purchased by a school in anticipation of a program that never came to be. The question is whether it makes more sense to rebuild the Pexto or purchase the Tennsmith and sell my Pexto project. Everything I plan to make with the shear will be smaller than 36", but in terms of raw stock, how much extra will I end up paying by purchasing smaller sheets. Also, is there any real qualitative difference between Pexto and Tennsmith? My impression has always been that Pexto might be a little better, but that the difference is small.
 
Some time ago I bought a used Niagara stomp shear that cuts about 42" wide. I seldom use is mainly because most of my material is purchased and stocked in a minimum of 48"x 96" or 60"x 120" sheets. If you have a steady source for the smaller sheets then it does not matter but almost every steel service center we deal with stocks 48" wide as a minimum.

As far as the brand I have had no problems with either although one might have a cast frame and the other a fabricated frame. I prefer a cast frame. I believe it's more rigid.

View attachment 93614

Walter
 
It would help to know what sort of material you'll be shearing.

Material availability is going to depend on what material you're using. For example, galvanized steel sheets and certain alloys of aluminum are readily available at 3 ft width, and there's little price premium. OTOH, 3 ft hot rolled and cold rolled bare steel sheets will be quite a bit harder to find in stock. Unless you're buying pretty good quantities, delivery costs on gauge thickness sheets can be a significant cost factor since most any sheet stock has to be skidded at a minimum for transport even on the metal peddler's own trucks. If you have to have it delivered via common carrier, the freight gets really expensive.

We've owned several pieces of Pexto equipment over the years, and a few things from Tennsmith as well. Haven't ever really noticed and difference between the two brands. Currently have 2 sets of 4ft 16ga rolls, one Pexto and one Tennsmith, and there's not a dime's worth of difference between them as far as I can tell.
 
It would help to know what sort of material you'll be shearing.

Thanks for the responses.

As far as material goes, it will include steel, mainly 16 and 20ga., some galvanized, 16-22 ga. some Aluminum, 1/32 and 1/16".

I'll be using it for maintenance projects and for prototyping. It won't get used a lot, but it will be handy to have a variety of materials in stock so that we can make things up as we need them.
 








 
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