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Kupe's Zodiac 650B
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Date:  6-29-2015
Number of Hours:  1.50
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Baffles Fitting 2

Finished marking the left baffle and began cutting on the right baffle. The cutting was a challenge due to the thickness of the baffle material. Normally, when cutting aluminum sheet with tin snips, the excess rolls up as you make long cuts. But with the thicker baffle material, only the narrowest width cuts will roll up - cuts wider than about 1/4" remain un-curled making the job unwieldy.

My solution was to use a sheet metal nibbler (Image 1). The nibbler makes a cut by chipping out ~1/8" long chunks of aluminum of about 1/16" width. Using the nibbler seemed slow at first, but there's never any binding and it was actually less effort to squeeze than the tin snips. The down side is the base of the nibbler rubs along the sheet metal leaving small scratches in the skin. But by using the nibbler to cut 1/4" outside the sharpie lines, it was fairly easy to go back around the piece using the tin snips for a cleaner, final edge.

Once al the cuts were completed on the right baffle, I filed down the cut edges and sanded them, then reinstalled the baffle to check its fit. My hand finally gave out so I'll work on the left baffle tomorrow.
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Sheet metal nibbler (left) and several examples of the metal chips it creates while cutting.

Sheet metal nibbler (left) and several examples of the metal chips it creates while cutting.

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Right side baffle after cutting off the excess.

Right side baffle after cutting off the excess.

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Right side baffle from behind.

Right side baffle from behind.

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