It may not be an obvious choice but fitted with the right blade a circular saw is a great metal cutting tool.
Tools to cut thin sheet metal.
To cut straight lines use an electric saw.
These tools are good for cutting soft sheet.
You can cut mild steel up to about 3 8 in.
Start by taping both sides of the sheet metal directly over the line you want to cut and clamp the metal to a work station so it doesn t move.
Hot metal chips will fly everywhere.
Such as straight cut snips left cut the right cut etc.
Thinner sheets however only require a tin snip.
If you are committed to learning how to cut sheet metal by hand the cheapest solution by far would be using an aviation snip set.
There are two ways to cut round ducts.
Simply line up your chisel along the line you are.
Double headed sheet metal nibbler rexbeti drill attachment metal cutter with extra punch and die 1 cutting hole accessory and 1 step drill bit perfect for straight curve and circle cutting gold.
Thick using a ferrous metal cutting blade.
After doing the first two steps you are ready to cut your stainless steel.
Using a chisel and hammer is the most basic form of cutting sheet metal.
Then grip the saw with both hands and push the blade through the metal to cut it.
Aviation snips and tin snips are a common method of cutting thin sheet metal for hobbyists.
For stainless tubing a circular saw is a perfect tool to use.
They are essentially metal cutting scissors that are stronger and more durable than standard scissors.
Cut metal with your circular saw.
They look like scissors and work fine with sheet metals like brass aluminum tin steel etc.
For thin sheets of metal you can use tin snips to cut through it.
There are some cuts that you can do with decent tin snips.
Tin snips have heavy blades that can cut through thin sheets of metal.
First if you want to cut a duct near the middle and use both ends mark and cut the duct before snapping it together.
In our test it cut through rebar like a hot knife through butter.
If you are cutting through thicker sheets an angle grinder power shear or circular saw is the best option.