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Choosing a metal shear

Matt_50

Aluminum
Joined
Apr 30, 2020
As I mentioned in another post I want to make some hand saws. I bought some 1095 spring steel in .020 thickness. I also have some brass for the backs, 260 .093 thickness.

So I'm looking at the Beverly B2 shear. How well would this cut both materials? Would there be any distortion along the cut line?

Are there any other good shears that might be better for each metal? I'm currently slowly cutting with a cut off wheel and snapping it off for the spring steel and also using the cut off wheel for the brass strips. Clamped in angle iron to act as heat sink.

I know there are other shears. Videos and reviews make some of them look worth while. I don't want to buy twice, any advice or experience would be great.

Maybe this? https://www.amazon.com/Shop-Fox-M1041-Plate-12-Inch/dp/B0039ZAASK?th=1&psc=1
 
Are there any other good shears that might be better for each metal?

Shearing - if yah can do it - is fairly righteous as to being energy and material efficient.

Beverly (or Beverly "style". Prolly a TON of "generic Chinese" knock-offs around, long-since?) are handy - VERY! - for very little space, but have very limited cut-length and even less inherent repeat precision. They are meant to be flexible. That's why they are "throatless." But do you NEED curves?

If I had the need of straight lines, OTOH? There's but a few I'd look at.

A used Di-Acro, Wysong, or Pexto. 36" wide or so? Unless... your goods are really tiny? Then a benchtop air press ... or even the marvelously useful Old Skewl "foot press" one Day Job had a whole ROW of for small parts.

Hydraulic only maybe. Air preferred. Cheaper to rebuild. "Jump shear" AKA foot-stomper might be acceptable if your materials are not overly demanding.

Both Diacro and Wysong can, and HAVE, been fitted with tuned-up and/or shop-fab stops - with micrometer heads, even - to hold seriously *tight* tolerances.

Cutting that accurately, first-time, every-time? Could save you a LOT on reduced subsequent operations vs a Beverly throatless and SURELY vs your - dare we say "daft?" - score & snap with an angle-grinder!

Get the blade serviced. Don't abuse it. Should be good for years.
 
As per Thermite, need to know if you need curved cuts. Beverly B2 is a great tool but not for cutting repetitive straight accurate cuts.

Nice to have BOTH, actually. But I'd want the B3.

Besides greater capacity, Beverly added a workpiece CLAMP to the B3 that the B2 haveth not.
So much for "throatless" and curves if you need them.

There's a look-similar, workalike family of cousins WITH a throated frame that does do (nominally) "straight" cuts, and up to 12".

Even so, given enough spare width to accomodate feed at an angle, the Wyson/Diacro/Pexto "squaring" shears can be tooled - between room for shop-fab front guides and clever adaptation of the back guide, to cut repetitive mating angles so as to mimimize waste & reduce second-op workload.

IOW, re-assess the approach. "Plan ahead".

Select the approach and options so they do more of the work FOR you.
 
Straight cuts. I won't be needing any curved plates.

Then the throatless Beverly "pattern" is not your "main production" shear.
At all.

What you want - as those three old-line makers focus "mostly' on [1] is a "squaring" shear... potentially modified to accurately repeat angles. Guessing, based on, for example, the taper to a classical Disston hand saw's blade.

FWIW - "back in the stone age", relatively, (mid 1970's..) we shipped the blades of our huge paper shears from Virginia to these folks for sharpening:

About Saw Blade Sharpening by Dixie Saw & Knife of Lake Worth, Florida

From 1929 to present day, they've kept things sharp for lots of folks!

:D

[1] Pexto, in particular, make a whole line of OTHER sheet-metal-working goods to cut discs, circles, and such, form beads to crimp them together, yadda, yadda as well.

Think Old Skewl galvanized metal pails, coal scuttles, rounded-corner rectangular and oval washtubs, trashcans, and such round or "curvey" goods - back before molded plastics became all the rage.
 
I wouldn't think that a B2 is going to make you happy if you're doing straight cuts. If you can live with 24" I would think a diarco 24" would fit the bill nicely.

Dunno what his "saw blade" material is?

But I suspect he'd want at least 11 Ga. capable models commercial food-prep SS range-hood makers and such utilize.

One meant for 16 ga - such as would suit a HVAC ductwork shop, ofen working only in the 20's material-wise - would be seriously strained if he's cutting even rather thin die steel.
 
He says "1095 spring steel in .020 thickness.", not too far from the strapping they band lumber with I recon.

I would think any of the 3 links I posted would be OK, I would buy the power one and likely as not each blade still had 2 good edges on it, if not have them ground.
 
He says "1095 spring steel in .020 thickness.", not too far from the strapping they band lumber with I recon.

I would think any of the 3 links I posted would be OK, I would buy the power one and likely as not each blade still had 2 good edges on it, if not have them ground.

I hadn't seen that. Yah.. close to 24 Ga. They'll do.

Saw must be similar to some of the "pull" type Japanese ones I have?

Not rare out Asia way. The "modern" ones even have two-tone cushioned plastic handles!
 
You don't want a Beverly. It will cut a curved line but it's hard to use one for a dead straight line. I have a Whitney no. 38 that does a pretty good job of straight cutting.

whitneyNo38.jpg


This type of hand shear has been cloned many times. As long as the blades are in good condition, sharp and adjusted correctly, any of them should do your job fine. Here is an example:

Bench Mounted Sheet Metal Shears | Manual Metal Sheet Cutter | Baileigh Industrial

metalmagpie

PS my shop is MUCH neater today!
 
I purchased a B2 just last month. They are now manufactured by Mittler Bros.
Any of the hand powered shears are going to have significant distortion that will need to be corrected.
A stomp shear would be my first pick.
 
I purchased a B2 just last month. They are now manufactured by Mittler Bros.
Any of the hand powered shears are going to have significant distortion that will need to be corrected.
A stomp shear would be my first pick.

Why not the powered one, it looks in pretty good shape and is certainly cheap enough?
 
If you have a table saw you can cut the brass on it with a basic non ferrous blade from Home Depot, otherwise you will need a decent sized shear to cut .097 brass. I have an extra 36” Pexto jump shear (with back gauge) that would cut the steel no problem, but could not cut the brass. Let me know if interested.


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