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Air Nibbler - best way to cut sheet metal?

General Tech Talk

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Post by CWBYUP »

love_mud wrote: If it is painted over with an approved "colorbond" brand paint that seals out external contaminants .. how can it still be screwed ? ( I am not doubting what your saying about insurance companies looking for any reason to get out of coughing up the $$ .. but I bet a court case would beat em .. as the damage is in no way related to the cutting of the metal with an abrasive disk .. if it was rusted to all fark well thats another story unless you have new for old)
Then go and do it, and when they won't give you warranty and you post it up here I will saying and big f&%king TOLD YOU SO :?

Chunderlicious is in the roofing game as I was, take his advice.

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Post by Guy »

CWBYUP wrote:
love_mud wrote: If it is painted over with an approved "colorbond" brand paint that seals out external contaminants .. how can it still be screwed ? ( I am not doubting what your saying about insurance companies looking for any reason to get out of coughing up the $$ .. but I bet a court case would beat em .. as the damage is in no way related to the cutting of the metal with an abrasive disk .. if it was rusted to all fark well thats another story unless you have new for old)
Then go and do it, and when they won't give you warranty and you post it up here I will saying and big f&%king TOLD YOU SO :?

Chunderlicious is in the roofing game as I was, take his advice.

Nick
I already have done it .
I cannot see any possible link from hail damaged material to stuff being cut with a grinder. There need to be some plausible link between cause and effect for insurance to be denied.

Nowhere that I can find on the colorbond website does it say anything about not cutting with an abrasive disk, nor does it say anything about it on the sample warranty card. I reckon the case would satnd up pretty well.


On here it says PREFERED METHOD
http://www.colorbond.com.au/go/howto/in ... nce-part-2

Warranty card ... Nope nothing about it on here either.
http://www.colorbond.com/download.cfm?d ... e=filename

Tips and advice on using colorbond
http://www.colorbond.com/index.cfm?obje ... 1B39A7FC47 .. nothing there either.

Fortunately I live in an area that has sensible size hail stones..
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Post by Guy »

I am not suggesting that a MUCH better method of cutting isnt a nibbler or gilbows etc etc ...
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Post by noelb1 »

you can do what we use for cutting out the whole for vanwindows, drw a straight line , then get some good electric/pneumatic metal shears and follow the line,
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Post by chunderlicious »

love_mud wrote:I am not suggesting that a MUCH better method of cutting isnt a nibbler or gilbows etc etc ...
mud, i was getting at, if a roof is shit because of previous install, rust from age, dints from age. then when it comes time that a hail storm goes through they will not replace previously damaged goods. doing alot of work out at kilcoy (bumfarkville) they are all world war2 widow homes. alot of the houses arent getting replaced because they were shit before the storm.

colorbond/BHP/bluescope/lysaght dont do approved paints persay they do recomended paints. these dont mean you can fark a sheet and redo it in there recomended paint brand. mearly make it look nicer with them.

by all means cut it however you want, but when it comes down to whos lasts longer mine will be here still under waranty in 25 years (a fair way away from any contaminants). every single screw in my is being replaced in the next few months for free because they are rusted. the house is 20 years old and without hesitation bremick are doing this for us.

insurance companys have been pretty good for hail damage, AAMI is the best followed by suncorp then NRMA and all the allianze type ones and in last place for home and contents is RACQ. our roof leaked (i didnt put it on) and instead of replacing a few screws and flashings they fixed the plaster that got water damaged. did it twice now. i got up and fixed the problem finally cost me about 1 hour and 50 bucks in trade price materials.
turbos are nice but i'd rather be blown
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Post by pulux »

Hi I am another roof plumber/sheeter here, I confess I haven't fully read thru all the posts but I agree, please don't use a grinder (associated problems already discussed). Red's will do the neatest job but take ages. Excaliburs or even better EZ shears will do a neat job but are hard to use for a first-timer.

If you're just cladding the sides, won't the top be covered by a barge flashing? so cut the tops reasonably straight with nibbler/shears/snips? On the straight topped sides just measure the sheets exactly, they are cut to length by a computer so they'll be spot-on. I reckon there shouldn't be any uncovered sheet-ends anywhere, unless there are to be no gutters on the roof sheets.
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Post by pulux »

ok just read this-
The 2 sides of the shed have to be cut neatly, as they won't be covered by barge capping (timber frame with overhanging eaves).
If possible, just get some colorbond 20x20 90 degree bent up, will hide the cut and look the goods. Rivet to the ribs of the sheet.
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Post by ISUZUROVER »

pulux wrote:they are cut to length by a computer so they'll be spot-on.
That is what I would have thought - but I bought (and fitted) the roof sheeting first, and there was up to 20 mm variation (16 of the 18 sheets may have been spot on - didn't measure them). Maybe they were just the leftover sheets.

Thanks very much for all the replies and tips everyone. My house has a near-new (professionally installed) colorbond roof, and it looks very much like all the flashing and cappings were cut with a nibbler.

There seem to be some reasonably priced nibblers and shears going - so I think I will pick one of them up and practice. The cold saw looks great, going by my previous quotes from coates hire, I could buy a new cermet blade for what they will want to hire one.
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Post by shakes »

The spark's will also eat into the paint on the sheet's causing lots of little rusty speck's.

also if you are tearing it please wear rigger's gloves
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Post by Shadow »

love_mud wrote:
chunderlicious wrote:ok since everyone is saying use a grinder ill say this

tin has a warranty, cut it with a grinder and you have no warranty. use snips and nibblers or excalibur cutters (electro shears) if you can spare 400 bucks. but dont for any reason cut purlins, battens, roof sheets, wall clad, flashings, caps, aprons or anything else associated with zincalume roofing or framing with a grinder. it will corode very fast and screw up warranty claims or even any chance of an insurance company if it gets hail damaged. if they see rust they normally refuse to redo it. use a hacksaw if its all you have, a powersaw, jigsaw anything but a grinder.

if you can a water jet works well and so does those air jet things. but plasma wrecks it. even if painted over after it doesnt matter its screwed if its hot cut.
If it is painted over with an approved "colorbond" brand paint that seals out external contaminants .. how can it still be screwed ? ( I am not doubting what your saying about insurance companies looking for any reason to get out of coughing up the $$ .. but I bet a court case would beat em .. as the damage is in no way related to the cutting of the metal with an abrasive disk .. if it was rusted to all fark well thats another story unless you have new for old)
When you hot cut it the heat destroys the zinc in the metal, and then it loses its rust protection. Painting over is nowhere near as good as having zinc within the steel itself.

BHP will even void warranties if treated timber or disimilar metals (like copper brass etc) is in contact with the zincalum as it will cause rust.

BHP give 20 year warranty, so they have strict guidlines for it.
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Post by Shadow »

i mean bluescope :roll:
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Post by Harb »

chimpboy wrote:Wow, I'd never seen these.

Written up here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Metal_Cutting_Saw

Sounds perfect for the job.
Got one of those, its a ripper pardon the pun !!
I cut through square tube etc 1.6, 2 mm etc etc just powers through.
A great investment, but not cheap, I think it was over $700 from memory.
As stated, just hire one at the hire place......

cheers
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Post by dumbdunce »

I vote the nibbler, they're not that difficult to get a straight cut with as long as you attack with some confidence.
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Post by cloughy »

dumbdunce wrote:I vote the nibbler, they're not that difficult to get a straight cut with as long as you attack with some confidence.
^^^^^ and the flashing covers the rest, NO GRINDERS, unless you like surface rust on your sheeting :D
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Post by dwaynes »

super jeep wrote:chunderlicious is spot on only cut sheets with tinsnips i'm a shed builder and if i catch any of my workers useing a grinder on sheets they get a one way ticket to dole office. i use wiss snips for cutting around flashings and trim work but i found gilbows are the best for a straight line cut across the sheet even when on a angle. gilbows take alot of getting used to but i will challange anyone with there air/grinders tools that i could cut my sheet quicker and neater with my gilbows than the other guys.
also alot of sheet metal bluescope included voids there warrenty if been cut with grinder
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yeap these are the go for cutting sheet used these throught my apprentiship. gilbows and wiss snips only way to go.
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Post by zagan »

The guys who put up sheds for a living use a circular saw, maybe the cold saw either one anyway.

Use the frame to cut around or if your up for it, brick layer line ping it and then go along the line, free hand, 3 to 6 meters should only take about a min maybe 2 min to cut.

could use a length of metal but you could end up cutting into the metal length.

or...

Screw the sheeting up onto the frame then cut along the top with the saw for it to go up even quicker, then you'd chuck on the roof sheeting and then cut the ends off.

Coiuld ping it again but

The roof will cover the cut top ends on the walls and the ends of the roof should be covered by the gutter and flashing.

only takes these guys a day to do a 6x9 shed, from start to completely finshed.


If you get a scratch on the colour bond go and get the spray paint cans or touch up pens, these come in the 30 colours they have.

Alnother way you can "cut" colour bond, only way across the sheet no angles, is the tin snip the end then pull the sheet up and it'll tear across the sheet, might not be perfectly straight, but I've seen some damn straight tears this way.

I wouldn't suggest doing this but is do able, just to let you know.
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Post by chunderlicious »

zagan wrote:The guys who put up sheds for a living use a circular saw, maybe the cold saw either one anyway.

Use the frame to cut around or if your up for it, brick layer line ping it and then go along the line, free hand, 3 to 6 meters should only take about a min maybe 2 min to cut.

could use a length of metal but you could end up cutting into the metal length.

or...

Screw the sheeting up onto the frame then cut along the top with the saw for it to go up even quicker, then you'd chuck on the roof sheeting and then cut the ends off.

Coiuld ping it again but

The roof will cover the cut top ends on the walls and the ends of the roof should be covered by the gutter and flashing.

only takes these guys a day to do a 6x9 shed, from start to completely finshed.


If you get a scratch on the colour bond go and get the spray paint cans or touch up pens, these come in the 30 colours they have.

Alnother way you can "cut" colour bond, only way across the sheet no angles, is the tin snip the end then pull the sheet up and it'll tear across the sheet, might not be perfectly straight, but I've seen some damn straight tears this way.

I wouldn't suggest doing this but is do able, just to let you know.
ill be building a colorbond roof tomorrow for a mates old boy and i can tell you now by myself the whole shed shouldnt take more than a day. and i dont even build sheds. dont touch up scratches if you cant see them from the ground, the paint doesnt fade and the sheets do.

although the sheets are cut with a computer and guilotine you can get upto about 50mm difference between them. just make it uneven at the covered end :D and line up the end in the gutter or hanging over the edge.
turbos are nice but i'd rather be blown
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