just saw on Ryobi’s site they will be releasing a 1+ 23g pinner and a shear soon. Thoughts? Some people were definitely asking for this
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I’d grab the shear today it were available… got a metal roof to start on monday. That pinner is also a welcome addition, surprised only Makita offers one currently, I don’t have a need for one but can see how others could be excited to see it.
Before you get too exited about using a powered (cordless or otherwise) shears on metal roof - you need to check out its ability to cut the material you have. We found that shears and nibblers were sometimes not capable of cutting tthrough ribs or corrugations on some metal roofing - and were agonizingly slow on corrugated decking. We’d resort to using our Evolution and Morse metal cutting circular saws.
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Thanks @fred, the manufacturer of the roof we’ve been using says do not use circular saws, grinders, or high speed cutting tools, the risk is due to heat causing high potential for rust.
Interesting - and something to consider. I guess you are cutting steel roofing that has a zinc (or other galvanic material) coating (or layer under a prefinished surface) to retard rusting. Cutting through it with a circular saw or grinder - would indeed leave an edge/area that would be unprotected and be subject to corrosion. There might be issues too with cutting anodized prefinished aluminum.
For anything but small roofing jobs - we’d leave - or subcontract that work to the experts who did it regularly. For metal roofing. they had the specialized tools to crimp standing seams etc. When I talked about cutting roofing with our Evolution/Morse saws, I was thinking about work we did cutting corrugated decking and roofing that was used as a substrate for poured concrete. It was not subject to weather.
For flat sheets - most shears or nibblers will work as long as it can handle the material gauge. I do know, however, that not all shears or nibblers can deal with corrugated materials - especially if the corrugations are tightly-spaced. . For corrugated materials. it would still be best to try out a shears or nibbler on the material you need to cut
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You could use a jigsaw or sawzal l with proper blade
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You might try with a jigsaw or reciprocating saw - but corrugated sheet metal is tough to cut - because the saw blade teeth catch and you get lots of chattering. Backing it up might help - but then you are adding an extra step and wasting a backup board. I had seen furriers who used many layers of sheet metal spaced (something like 1/4 inch apart) as walls for storage rooms. This done, precisely because they were tough to cut through and slowed would-be thieves down allowing the alarm systems and police to do their job.
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