Plate Beveler - Which Type is Best - Rotary or Nibbler/plunger

About to purchase a good beveler and wondering if anyone has used both types and could recommend one over the other. Trumpf being an example of the plunger/nibbler style and Metabo or Germina being if the rotary. Price of no concern- stress on body is.

Welcome to the forum, what beveller type you decide on has more to do with the job specifics more than just reducing the impact on your body. Here are some factors to consider that should help us to help you.

-What is the type/thickness of the plate you intend to bevel?
-What is the bevel angle?
-What is the length of the bevel?
-Are you trying to do the bevel in a single pass?

Personally: I have/use a few types of rotary bevelers, rotary is my preference as the reciprocal motion of the Trumpf gets old after awhile and you can start to feel it in your arms/shoulders after a while. If the beveler/nibbler is not up against the part properly it can pull itself down and crack the cutter on the down stroke. The cutters are not readily available and cannot always be re-sharpened. There are obviously alternatives to the Metabo, Trumpf, and Germina


The following are the bevelers that I currently have at my shop and get used. The large beveler is a Heck Bevel Mill 8000 with the indexable carbide inserts. It is similar to the
PROS
-It is great for plates up to 1" thick and works on wear plates like Hard-OX,AR---,etc.
-The inserts are readily available and since they can be indexed multiple times it makes the cost easier to
absorb.
-It is easy to set to any angle as there is no predetermined angle to the head.
-I do not have to support the tool as it rests on the plate that is being beveled

CONS
-The bevel mill only works on straight edges as the fence guides the tool against the leading edge.
-The bevel mill is heavy with a 1HP motor.
-It produces the little blue bastard chips that get stuck on everything, and eventually work their way into
the house.
-You have to power the feed rate manually, so your feed rate is determined by sliding the bevel mill against
the plate top.




Burr Beaver
The tool is an air powered version that spins at ALL THE RPMS, it sounds like a turbine engine when you turn it on/off. It is a bad little tool, I use it to prep plates that require full penetration TIG joints.

PROS
-The tool uses a 1/4" double cut carbide burr, they are readily available and last a long time.
-The tool is great for anything under 5/16" plate.
-It is extremely light with the air motor

CONS
-It is not very powerful and thus cannot take deep cuts (it wasn't designed to)
-The carbide burr is very easily damaged
-The tool does not allow for easy changes of the burr
-It can only be used on straight edges

Lastly I also have BDS EFK beveler/chamfering tool, it is the most comparable to the Metabo bevelers. It is an air tool as well. It gets used the least.

PROS
-Like the Metabos, the cutter is not guided by a fence so it allows the tool to get used on curves and edges
that are not straight
-It is air powered so it is light
-It can take cuts as deep as the cutter that is being used
-There are several different types of blades avaialable

CONS
-The cost of the solid carbide replacement cutter heads is HIGH
-The tool consumes a lot of air
-The depth of the cut is guided by the bearing on the bottom of the cutter and the finish is dependent on the finish on the leading edge.

Wow, amazing reply! Thank you.
I will be using the tool on 304 stainless only, between .075" and .177" thick material only.
There will be a slight con-cavity to all the bevels. The smallest concavity to be a 30" diameter so the big fence guided bevelers might not cut it.
I would prefer to only take one pass per bevel but understand stainless is a tough material.
I am making bases for my kinetic sculptures @ ten feet in length so about eighty to one hundred twenty feet of bevels per base. Howear.net.
I just did a base with a grinder and my hands do not feel good. Too many more and I will not be able to hold anything in my hands.
Thanks!

"-What is the type/thickness of the plate you intend to bevel?
All 304 stainless @ .075" to .177" thick.
-What is the bevel angle?
30 degrees to 60 degrees.
-What is the length of the bevel?
Average to be about ten feet long times 8 or 12 = 80 to 120 feet of bevels per job.
-Are you trying to do the bevel in a single pass?"
This would be ideal.
For forty years I have done this with a grinder but no more. My hands cannot take it any longer.
I am making bases for my kinetic sculptures @ howeart.net.
Thank you!

Cutting only 304 stainless @ .075" to 1/4". 100 feet per job average.
After reviewing your bevelers my thought is the BDS EFK 645 might be the best option for my needs.
Even though the smaller 545 would be suitable I like the ten inserts over the eight and the increased power and weight for long deep cuts. I have two 7.5hp compressors but would still prefer electric.
Ball park cost of these machines? BDS gives no indication anywhere of costs.
Your thoughts?
Thanks!

I have a Nitto CB-02, which is a rotary air tool type, similar to the BDS mentioned above.
Nitto Kohki CB-02 Circuit Beveler

I bought it thinking I could bevel the edges of irregular shapes plasma cut from 16 gage to 3/16" mild steel.
Its not very good for that- its depth of cut must be really small for it to work right, and the carbide cutters dont last long on the HAZ on plasma cut edges.
And, as mentioned, it has a bearing that follows the edge, so it follows every bump.
If you are using sheared flat edge material, it would work better.
But any of the smaller hand powered ones will disappoint in terms of speed and amount of material removed per pass.

I dont have a trumpf beveler, but have a few different similar bosch nibblers and shears, and find the plunge style to be pretty rough in its surface smoothness.

Remember- these bevelers are all built for prepping surfaces to be welded, not to leave a cosmetic edge on a piece that will be exposed. When welding, you dont care if there are little irregularities, bites that are deeper every once in a while.

my guess is, if you are thinking about using these for SS parts for your sculptures, you probably wont get the finish you want, and it wont save any time over just sanding them.
I used to do a fair amount of production sculpture and furniture in sheet, and hoped this tool would do all my edge finishing faster and easier. It did not. I dont do much of that anymore, but I found that pretty much nothing beat a light hand and a flap disc.

We are not far apart- you can come and try out the nitto if you want some time.
My shop is just outside Edison, 20 minutes from Anacortes.

I'm going to be welding the beveled edges together so they need not be cosmetic. Two days ago I spent a day grinding about 90 feet of bevels and my hands are not in a good place today. 40 years of grinding and I need to find a different way to do this. I think I will try the STEELMax BM-16 @2200watts 1600-5200 rpms variable and slow it down for the stainless. The edges are laser cuts from my Fabweld fiber machine @4.5kw. Thanks for you guys advice!

I cannot figure out how this forum works. I have responded three times to you guy's very helpful answers and none of them get posted - up for admin review. I post on other threads and they go right up. I'm not responding in any way inappropriately so a bit confused.
What's up?

SteelMax used to make a big 1.5hp beveler like the Heck that could do concave edges over 40" in diameter.
I really like this big machine because you don't need to buy a bunch of heads to do different angles. Plus it has more cutters (inserts) doing the dirty work.
Very tempted to buy one of these (SteelMax BM-21SS) and make a custom fence that allows for slight concave edges. All you would be doing is putting the rollers as close to the head as possible.

I think this could work pretty well. A horse and a half is a much better machine for 14 gage to 3/16" stainless. And you could probably hang the beveller from the ceiling, or build it into a table, and just slide the stainless sheet.
I, too, have been grinding for 40 years, but have somehow managed to avoid destroying my arms yet.
Lately, I have switched to mostly using variable speed Metabo's that are two handed- one handed grinding is the worst, I have found. Plus, I clamp things to a table whenever humanly possible.

That decides it. Going to get the BM21 SS and give it a whack.
Will post success or failure.
Anything's better that that high tension springy feel your fingers get after a slew of grinding.
Thanks a heap for everyone's help.

Received the machine. Minimal packaging - the metal box containing the machine was dented due to the machine bouncing around inside it. Turned it on. Nothing. Ah oh. Removed the fence to discover major impediment in its rotation. Enough to keep it from starting up. Applied oil to the shaft and waited ten minutes and it started up but with major vibrations which then proceeded to disappear entirely. Ran a 1/8" pass on some 304 - excellent results and not that noisy at all. Nowhere near a 7" grinder disk. Very happy with the purchase

Anthony Howe said:

That decides it. Going to get the BM21 SS and give it a whack.
Will post success or failure.
Anything's better that that high tension springy feel your fingers get after a slew of grinding.
Thanks a heap for everyone's help.

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Doo it too long, and you can get "White Fingers"..:
White Finger Syndrome. Causes, symptoms, treatment White Finger Syndrome