KATSU Manual Metal Shear Cutter, 16 Inch 400mm Heavy Duty Plate Flat Metal Steel Sheet Cutting Shears Snips Precise Cutting Car Body Engineering Forming Repair Tool 325366

I need to cut thin stainless steel into rectangular blanks and so tried my snips, but the curl is a pain, so thought a hand nibbler would do, the kind that cuts out a narrow curled strip leaving the sheet itself flat. Bought a simple plier-type online but it wouldn't-couldn't even start a cut, the metal just squeezed back out of the jaw: stainless is very tough. Saw this little guillotine and decided to give it a try but at the price surely it must be a toy, no?Well, it works a treat and is absurdly good value: it's a real guillotine for the price of a little nibbler and perfect for straight cuts in sheet steel, aluminium, brass etc. However...Don't be put off by reviews about the two-part lever arm being wobbly; It's designed so in normal use the tube section with the rubber grip is a secure push-fit over the cast iron crank; the second length of tube is an extender only for when you need a lot of leverage. Only then it may wobble.I have made a major upgrade with a 12mm ply table for the workpiece, that clamps (or could screw) to the left side. Actually I clamp the whole machine in a big bench vise rather that bolt down the feet, and so that clamps the table at the same time. Works a treat.Didn't expect to have my own bench guillotine; now I do.

This is a great piece of kit for the price. It does however require a little work to set up. First thing is that it needs to be secured. I used an offcut of an old kitchen work top. You do need to use washers and lock nuts on the mecanism but this is an easy task - see the other reviews here for advice. I spent about 40 minutes on set up and it is working really well. I am using it for cutting 1mm Copper and Silver plate and it gives clean straight cuts with no burrs. I am really pleased for for about 40 quid and 40 minutes work I have an efficent and effective shear. The cuts are excellent and far better than I ever got with hand tools - highly recomended if you are prepared to spend a bit of time on set up.

I am a jeweller and I needed this for cutting silver sheet. I didn't think it would be accurate or useful but at this price I wanted to try it and I am amazed by it! This has saved me hours of work with the hand shears, there is no curling or twisting if the sheet, I love it you should get one.

Will work well but needs work to be done to make it a good cutter. Putting more washers in and taking the blade off to sharpen correctly

Used to cut 1mm, have to use the first 20-25mm of blade and 'nibble' through sheet.

I'd value this much higher than the price I paid. I decided to take a risk on the cost and hope for a good one, and I did well: it does not have the flaws other people have written about in some reviews. I'm shearing very light weight spring steel. The crank tube is a bit of a sloppy fit, but I won't be needing that anyway. I've mounted it to a board, and built up a track either side of it so I can feed strip into it sideways and cut it perfectly every time at a right angle. Very pleased. I just hope other purchasers have this good experience too.

Only cuts 160mm long, control arm in two sections and not fixed just fits together, also shorter than the one in listing picture, its needs to be assembled but that was ok.It dose work, 3mm thick plate is a bit tough for it but it dose cut it 2mm plate cuts with ease and leaves a very nice finish.In my opinion if you were aware of all the above points and paid £35 for it you would just keep it, I did.Sorry about the 3 stars but that's what you get when you list items incorrectly.

I was pleasantly surprised with this bench shears, it cut though 20 x 2mm mild steel flat bar easily (I suspect it will do 20-25 x 3mm MS flat bar).With a few "upgrades" the bench shears work like much more expensive ones.I drilled a 7.2 mm hole and tapped it to m8 to put a back gauge on it for production runs (it can be removed for cutting large sheets) and welded a table, flush to the left side (clean cut side), (it could be done with a drill and angle iron easily) .With the table It stops the problem of the metal lifting (clapping the work piece to the table with welders mole grips)ALl in all the bench shears are well worth it and with a few tweeks they turn into something that earns its place in the workshop.