Hey guys, im building a fence and want to use mini corrugated iron panels. I have already made up the panels ready to put the corrugated iron in, but i'll need to cut the corrugated iron to size.
Im worried about my ability to do it in such a way as to leave a tidy finish. Some one said to buy a nibbler and this will give the ability to have nice clean cuts. Is this the case? Is it possible to leave nice clean cuts in the iron?
Also Im told the corrugated iron Im buying is galvanised. Is this ok or is zincalume better?
Also when cut will i need to paint the edges / cuts, to stop rusting?
Anyone know?
dbab,
Feb 7, 9:43am
We found that even with a nibbler it was difficult to get a straight finish. We ended up putting a capping over the top, and nailing it down hard onto the support posts. It covered up any irregularities, and looks great.
johotech,
Feb 7, 9:49am
Snip and rip
gpg58,
Feb 7, 11:05am
I found when doing some roof repairs, that the best cutter i had (i have nibblers too, slow but good for odd shapes, but leaves nasty sharp shards everywhere), was my dualsaw, as long as i keep iron from flapping(supported), i could cut 4 sheets at a time (all clamped together each side of cut, both edges of sheet). Have even used it to cut up 1 inch galv water pipe too, blade still fine afterwards.
golfdiver,
Feb 7, 2:23pm
Just order the mini-orb at the correct size. They make to measure.
russell.s.c,
Feb 7, 2:48pm
Carbide disk in a circular saw. Quick, easy and a bit noisy but not bad.
panicky,
Feb 7, 2:54pm
put a half rooted skilsaw blade in backwards
gpg58,
Feb 7, 6:09pm
Never worked when i tried it, a hell of a lot of noise was all you got.
also Abrasive cutoff wheels are terrible, lots of cleaning up burred edge, or iron will start rusting real quick, plus the sparks damage the coating and stick tiny fragments of metal in it, which also rust, was what i read when i searched back then(and have seen evidence of on a few roofs).
Snips were considered best due to being a compression cut. A nibbler would be similar, and also the dual saw pinches between blades and gives a clean cut.
Ordering right size sheets, only works if you have a dead level section, or plenty of time to accurately work out each pieces length.
cleggyboy,
Feb 8, 2:26am
I used to be a maintenance engineer for a tungsten carbide saw blade factory, the local builders used our blades back to front in their skilsaws to cut corrugated iron. One even used them to cut a nice square edge to pour concrete up to on a driveway instead of using boxing.
gpg58,
Feb 8, 2:29am
Interesting, that ruins my theory that it was an old pre carbide tip trick, certainly did not work for me, or others that commented in a thread some time ago. Perhaps a really fine blade is needed, and mine were too coarse, or is it the modern high tensile iron that stopped it working.
pauldw,
Feb 8, 4:02am
I've got a pre-carbide sheet metal blade. The teeth are deep U notches on the edge, lots of them. Probably at least 80 on an 8 1/4 blade.
hammer23,
Feb 8, 4:11am
Cutting corrugated iron is a job I have never looked forward to, having tried all the above ways. A nibbler does the job o.k but what I have found works is to make it a two person job,one does the cutting with the snips/nibbler while the other pulls the off cut up vertically to provide clearance for your tool to work. Try that it may help. I used to be envious of the plumbers cutting the roofing iron,they made it look easy somehow.
ross1970,
Feb 8, 4:19am
+1` This is the post you should be taking note of Op.
zak410,
Feb 8, 4:41am
I would router grooves on the posts as well as add a capping on top of the iron.
golfdiver,
Feb 8, 5:58am
I can't believe the nonsense written here, either get them cut to length or get a pair of gilbows and cut them. It's not that hard. saws and nibblers just make a mess.
maddie44,
Feb 8, 6:21am
Milwaukee single cut shears do a tidy job.
trade4us2,
Feb 8, 6:32am
I have some large tinsnips with handles like scissors. I can cut across corrugated iron easily.
russell.s.c,
Feb 8, 6:35am
Well, the fence I built from recycled roofing iron and cut to size with the appropriate grade of carbide blade is still standing today without any obvious signs of rust. Mind you as it was done only 22 years ago I guess there's plenty of time for it to rust out.
golfdiver,
Feb 8, 9:18am
Your 22 year old fence was made out of a different material than today's zincalume.
gpg58,
Feb 8, 12:35pm
As the thread title is cutting iron cleanly, i decided to do a side by side compare, (Just for a bit light hearted fun, no offence re anyone else's opinion intended).
First photo is some of the thousands of tiny half moon shards generated from just one cut with nibbler, sure it makes a very clean cut, but a real nasty mess to clean up work area(i keep a super-magnet handy). https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/full/726292689.jpg drat not clear on here, sorry. Second is a compare of finished cuts, front is dual saw, next is grinder, third nibbler, forth backwards carbide tipped worn out blade(found an old finer one, surprised it worked ok), and last snips. https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/full/726293139.jpg Clearly the nibbler and snips made best quality clean cuts, followed by dual saw, with grinder coming in forth and backwards blade last.
But For speed, backwards blade and dual saw were about equal, and grinder third, nibbler forth, and snips at my 60 year old hands speed of use, came well and truly last.
For mess to clean up, the big loser was the nibbler. For worst mess cut to tidy, the backwards blade wins, closely followed by grinder.
Took a video of this process, please note, this was done real quick with file size in mind, also i usually take off foot on dual-saw, so as to more easily get a full depth cut in corrugations(forgot) the bigger model one would be better, and also this grinder has a nasty trigger lock, so would have been faster without the cutting out issue(note the clouds of hot metal sparks going for miles). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUyQ7jzB7xU&feature=youtu.be
So for me, i am sticking with my previous thought, that out of my tools, my dual-saw is my first choice for speed with still good quality of cut, (especially when i was cutting thru 4-5 sheets at a time, re roofing garage and part of house, with the nibbler as backup, for doing any fiddly bits only. Snips have there uses, but not in my opinion, for doing a lot of long cuts.
trade4us2,
Feb 8, 1:45pm
You are lucky you didn't cut your arm off with that angle grinder. I always hold an angle grinder with both hands. With practice you could cut smoothly with snips and not leave any jagged bits.
friendly_prawn,
Feb 8, 2:34pm
Cheers guys and a special thank you to gpg58 for the massive effort he went to, to help with this. I only have 6 small sheets to cut. They only need to be aprox 450 wide and 1150 high so as slow as the nibbler is, it looks like it leaves a very clean cut.
In reply to others, I cant order precut as Im not a builder and did a poor job of having everything square and exact sizes. So it would be a real pain trying to get sizes right for precut. Added to that Im bloody hopeless with measuring stuff. I usually cock things up. Im definitely no carpenter, just a diy guy doing stuff on the cheap. Photos show where Im up to on it.
Got holes framed out ready to be filled. Wasnt sure what to fill them with but I like the idea of the mini corrugated iron. If I can get something that will leave clean cuts I wont have to worry about using timber borders / frames to hide the cuts.
Some of the other ideas require me buying tools (some expensive) that I dont have and probably wont ever need again. For 6 small sheets to cut its hardly worth it. I'm sure i can buy a nibbler tool to add on to my drill, or even an air one I can use on my small compressor. And I can think of many times it would have come in handy to have one. So my main criteria, a nice clean cut and looking at the picture above it looks like the nibbler wins hands down. Slow? Yes, but for 6 small sheets. I think its worth it.
For six small sheets don't bother with a nibbler, just use a pair of gilbows, mini corro isn't hard to cut.
lecarver,
Feb 8, 6:46pm
I work with a ton of corrugated iron, have hand cutters, a nibbler, angle grinder with the fiber wheels, none really gave the best effect but I did what I could, then I came across this YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DilhwMrL91Q I didn't believe it at first but as each grinder I get comes with one of those blades I thought I would at least give it a go. The result is a amazing, finally get nice clean cuts, can do great detail. Though don't use the segmented diamond blades only the solid whole versions, have done about 100 cuts so far and the blade hardly looks worn.
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