My father is in the metal working industry, and when i asked him about cutting my case he said to use tin snips, after going at it forhours with a dremal i grabed the tinsnips to clean it up, it cut trought the panel like a red hot sworad throught butter. Tin snips are basicaly sicsors for metal. the trick to use them is not to cut every little bit off, but to cut in one smoth flowing cut. try it. they come in 3 kinds, a strait, a right, and a left, these differnt kinds are for making cut in different directions, so that the waste metal gets bent out of the way and no the finish metal. a new set of 3 costs $30, but you kand find a good pair at a garage sale, it is worth it. here is a pic:
Those might work okay if you were cutting from the leading edge of a panel. However, most of us are cutting from somewhere inside the panel -- a window, a blow hole, something like that. It's a little difficult to get started in a situation like that without drilling a sizable hole to start with. In most of the mods I have seen over the past few years, a jigsaw would have been or is the better tool for the job. I've heard many people say a Dremel is a better tool for curves, sharp radii and intricate detail cutting. Well, whatever you're comfortable with, but a jigsaw with the proper blade and handling can do 99% of the stuff I've seen done. Yes, I use a Dremel too, but I am a firm believer in using the best tool for a job, not the coolest tool for a job. The Dremel has that modders status attached to it and it really appeals to a large fan base. I don't see that happening any time soon with tin snips though. Cut up your next project with tin snips and take pictures. Let us all know how it goes. Maybe I'm all wrong about it.
the hole in thte side of my case that i cut out started with a 1/2 inch hole, just big enought to fit the tip of my left cutter through, that's why there are 3 diferent types.
thats going to warp the metal and give an uneven cut Im pretty bad with a dermel it would be scarry to see how that would come out notice the top corner
I have a few, but use them rarely compared to my air powered dremel ... they are efficient, but tend to do collateral damage ( as in bending/twisting the pannels I intended to cut cleanly )
As grump says best tool for cutting a case is a Jigsaw - variable speed with the right metal blades - a Dremel for cutting sides is expensive and wasteful of time and energy. And as people have said tin snips need an edge to start with..
for detailed cutting in thin sheet metal a dremel is best, but for long, straight cuts a jugsaw with a metal blade (and adjustable speed and blade movement back and forth) is defeneatly best)... Tin snips are great for cutting "raw material" and rough cuts, but not for cutting detailed cuts... the edges will need a cleanup afterwards...
I tired to use them on my panel...1/16th" is too thick for those tin snips to cut easily and they do warp the metal....Its good for lighter gauge sheet metal...
I use tin snips for most of my stuff also. The trick is to not try to take off too much at once, they aren't for going straight into a sheet of metal. I take off about 3/8" at a time, and work my way down to the line. I still dremel or file it to smooth of the edges.
Okay, let's see a picture. I looked and couldn't find one. I'd be real interested in seeing how this is done. I have done a lot of cutting on a variety of materials with a jigsaw. They cut great on aluminuminuminum cases in all kinds of sharp curves and corners. Jigsaws are meant to be used that way. And with the exception of maybe a laser cutter, all edges will need "cleanup". I had some work done with a water jet and IT needed cleaning up. Cutting a case panel is not a one step process.
Yes, tin snips are good for edge-on work. I turned a large sheet of metal into this: Although, admittedly, I did use two steel bars and a hacksaw to even up the edges. But tin snips and hacksaws are much less expensive than a table saw blade. Yes, I could have used the jigsaw but tin snips cut fairly quick for the purpose.
Quite honestly, the best possible tool for modding would be a fully decked out CNC machine or a laser cutter, or both. With this, you could practically form your own case, completely custom. But that's very far beyond the budgets of most. A dremel is the best all around honestly. You still have to drill the hole with the jigsaw, and the dremel is somewhat inaccurate unless you're amazing with it. So quite honestly, get the tool that's best for the job! It's not super expensive to get a panel laser cut, so if you want that supercomplicated design, go for it! However, if you want something more mellow, a holesaw and a jigsaw might be a better option.
those would be good, but as pointed out by many people before me, they have issues. im not going to go into the details, but i would have to say that after cutting this with only a jigsaw, i would have to say that they are quite good.. and a dremel will be quite handy too. whatever tool you use, lets see some good mods and creativity! (Click on thumbnail and enjoy)
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=371507&postcount=16 this was done with a dremel... The panel is wery thin steel, so a jigsaw would have made the metal bend. epsecially on those thin "strips" of metal that sticks out on the design..
Personally i wouldnt want to use tin snips on a intracate pattern. rotary tools are good starting tool since fairly cheap depending on what brand and have a lot of extra things you can do like grind and sand and whatever you wish to do. If you have the extra bucks then get a jigsaw. I personally havnt used a jig saw for modding since i have a clarke rotary tool and happy with it and done everything from sidepanels to blowholes with it. Guess its a matter of what you are comfortable with.
...I'm just gonna bite my toungue and say that I love my Dremel, and that using tin snips to create an intricate pattern in anything is caveman work
I use a Dremelclone and an electrical jigsaw. My bosh jigsaw with its metal blades cuts through metal like butter, and for the details i use the dremelclone. The dremelclone costs 1/5 of the real thing, but is really good. But the tools that comes with the thing is CRAP. Event if you use a cheap el. tool, use real equipment for it (cheap jigsaw- still use expensive blades and so on)
Dremels have ther uses but its not for cutting basic window shapes, Intricate designs are ok as thats roughly what the dremel type tool (die grinder) was designed to do. If your cutting a basic shape window FFS buy a jigsaw its so much easyer. As said before tin sinps are alright for 'trimming' a little off the side of thin sheet but they leave distorsion on anything other than that Personaly i use a guillotine and a nibbler for 90% of my work. i only use tinsnips or the demel when i can relly see no other way of doing it. slater..
