what about sheet metal shears? it's what i used to make my speaker brackets.

 

HAHAHA ^^^ i never even thought of the simple way.. i was all trying to think of some type of a saw and i never thought of the tool made to cut sheet metal. good one on the shears chris. fing02.gif

shears would require a bit of muscle (depending on how much leverage the shears have) but they wouldn't be able to slip like a dremel might. you wouldn't go through ANY bits. only thing that might be hard with sheers is cutting any type of tight radius if needed.

 

I thought of the shears but how well do they cut? I imagine that they would cut like going through a tree branch where you squeeze and then suddenly they snap through the metal and make the cut which wouldn't make for a very nice time trying to get good designs with any type of a curve.

 

They cut pretty well, it's a curved blade. I don't like them because they leave a jagged edge though.

 

they pretty much just work like scissors through paper, but may bend the metal a little bit. they can chop through a penny really easily, so sheet metal is no problem. just take a sanding disc to the edges afterwards to smooth them up.

i tried the old dremel when i made the brackets, but it was taking forever. few minutes with the shears and i was done. even if you do need detail work, use them for the general cuts and then tidy with the dremel.