Cutting Copper Sheet

[Al Stramiello]

I have a sheet of medium gauge .016 copper that I need to cut for a box top. I need a straight, smooth cut. Can I cut it on my table saw? Or, is there a better way to get a good edge?

[Bill LaPointe]

Take it to a sheet metal shop or large heating and air company and have them shear it for you. They most likely will not charge you at all.

[David Hawxhurst]

my first choice would be what bill suggests my second choice would be a circular saw/track saw system or bandsaw my last choice would be table saw. almost forgot the jig saw as well.

[Lee Schierer]

I would score it several times with a very sharp knife and straight edge then break it by bending it if the piece isn't large.

I think if you try to cut this on a TS you will get too much flutter in the copper and then a loud bang as something breaks. This material is much too thin to be cut on a TS.

[Bill Rogers]

I agree with Lee, you should be able to score your .016 copper with a very sharp knife along a straight edge. If you don't end up cutting right through it then it should break when you bend it. Copper is a very soft metal and you are using a very light gauge (according to SMACNA it is 28 gauge and weighs .66 lbs. per square foot).

Bill

[Mike Schuch]

I have never had satisfactory results using a radial saw or band saw blade on copper sheet. It is just too soft and won't maintain a smooth edge. Even a fine tooth band saw blade will pull a ragged edge. maybe sandwiching it between hard wood or masonite might help but I haven't tried it.

Because of the softness you need a good sharp well aligned shear blade for nice results. A shear that gives a nice edge on steel won't necessarily give you a good edge on copper.

I have never tried scoring copper with a sharp knife but that sounds promising.

[Noah Katz]

If you have a little extra to experiment on, I'd try it on the TS, sandwiching it between two pieces of wood and with the teeth just barely higher than the top of the copper.

[Steve Ryan]

Had excelent results on a sliding chopper with a zero or neg rake blade. Score and bend also works well. Make many lighter scores to prevent the blade tip from snapping off.

[ray hampton]

I have seen sheet metal cut with a Radial saw and with a router[siding]

[Jaromir Svoboda]

Try siding or window contractor,they have a brake for bending aluminum.You can rent it for about $30 a day.

[Perry Holbrook]

Lots of ideas here. I cut copper on a regular basis. I usually use a shear, which does fine, but you may need to touch up the edge with sanding if you want a fine furniture piece. I cut it on a band saw for irregular shapes, just use a spoil board under it and use a fine tooth blade. For real precision, a sandwich between 2 pieces of wood, plywood, mdf, whatever, cut either on a band saw or table saw would do the job. Although I haven't done the table saw, I'm sure it would be fine when in a sandwich.

Perry

[Eric DeSilva]

If you are using it for a box top, why not bond it to the substrate then cut it? If the substrate is already cut to size, you could use a laminate trimmer to get the edges even. Having worked with sheet metal a little, most of the suggestions here are still going to do something a little funny around the edge, whether its because it is deforming the adjoining copper or whatever. If you are really looking for a clean edge, bonding it to what it will attach to eventually, and then cutting, makes the most sense to me. I seem to recall David Marks doing this on one of his shows--laminate it to a piece of wood, then use a laminate trimmer to get a perfect edge.

[Larry Edgerton]

I would score it several times with a very sharp knife and straight edge then break it by bending it if the piece isn't large.

.

Unless you can cut it all the way through that does not work Lee. The copper is so malable that it bends but does not break. By the time it comes apart it gets pretty ugly.

I make a lot of copper flashings, but I cut them with my shear. Aviator snips suck, but I have a set of large Malco's that do a pretty good job, with just a bit of a kink when you move forward.

I have cut it on the tablesaw and got away with it for years until one caught and wadded up on me. I think samwiched it would be fine, but I have not tried it.

[Dan Hintz]

I'll suggest the electric shears from Harbor Fright ;) I think I picked them up for about $20 when they were on sale and with a 20% off coupon. Surprised me how well they worked, and if you clamp a couple of wood strips along your cut as a guide, you can get perfectly straight cuts with it... I was able to get amazingly straight cuts without a guide in aluminum just by taking it slow.