noise/neighbour friendly tools please

[zippy500]

Can you tell me what tools you use to cut repair section out of your mog.

I know using grinder is prob best, but need it to be noise/neighbour friendly

[Luxobarge]

The quietest metal cutting tools I have are large tin-snips and a hand-nibbler.

The tin snips are only good for certain types of job, and can distort the edge of the metal quite a bit, but of course are near silent - can be hard work though!

The hand-nibbler cuts a 3mm "strip" of metal out, so the main disadvantage is that the two edges will never meet again - OK if one side of the cut is rusty metal that you're going to replace anyway. It can also be hard work and quite slow - but the advantage is that it is again, silent, and does not distort the metal edges.

I also use an air nibbler, which cuts thousands of little crescent shapes of metal out to leave a nibbled "gap" of about 3-4mm like the hand nibbler. This is fairly quiet but by no means silent, and the tool can be difficult to control and get a smooth edge. It is very fast though - and good fun!

I've got loads of other cutting tools, (angle grinder, air-hacksaw, air cut-off disc etc.) but they are all rather noisy. The best solution would be a plasma cutter of course, but they are quite expensive and I don't have one (yet!)

Hope that helps for starters....

[rayofleamington]

I know using grinder is prob best, but need it to be noise/neighbour friendly

I hope you've not been talking to the folks who live in the new estate behind me
Angle grinders are really useful, but in the late evenings they are not always 'ideal'. Fortunately my closest neighbours don't mind a hoot on account of being old, having bad hearing and having their TV's on loud.

During office hours, nobody can really complain that much about angle grinder noise. If you have a neighbour on shifts it's always good to find out when they are sleeping though!

If you've never tried 1mm cutting blades in the grinder - I really recommend these! They cut through bodywork like nothing should and therefore reduce your grinding (noise) time.

I also recommend never using 'really cheap' angle grinder cutting disks as they can be a complete false economy and also require 5 times as much grinding time

[stag36587]

Absolutely agree with Ray - the 1mm discs are excellent - quick and neat.

[bmcecosse]

Where to buy such items ?? And are they not fragile and liable to 'blow up' in your face ?

[rayofleamington]

Where to buy such items ?? And are they not fragile and liable to 'blow up' in your face ?

I always worried about that so I never bought any for the last few years - a friend of mine kept recommending them so I got one to try earlier this year.
After using one for a while I really regretted having waited so long! Obviously if you drop your grinder they are likely to break, but i've been inpressed about how robust they are for normal use. They have a very good webbing so will take a certain amount of flexing without failing.

[Luxobarge]

Where to buy such items ?? And are they not fragile and liable to 'blow up' in your face ?

I always worried about that so I never bought any for the last few years - a friend of mine kept recommending them so I got one to try earlier this year.
After using one for a while I really regretted having waited so long! Obviously if you drop your grinder they are likely to break, but i've been inpressed about how robust they are for normal use. They have a very good webbing so will take a certain amount of flexing without failing.

They do indeed sound good, but I've not seen them in the normal places - I too whould like to know where one gets them from - does anybody know???

Cheers

[alex_holden]

http://www.thewelderswarehouse.com/Weld ... ngle_.html

[Stig]

Also:

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... -2in/path/

[bmcecosse]

Excellent - thanks for the links ! You do see these very thin (and usually completely unguarded) discs being used to great effect on Overhaulin etc!