SCALES the fast way

[Marcus Julius]

How did you have cut the steel to get a oval shape on the top?

After seeing this thread, I'm considering doing this myself (Aviation shears are taking forever!). I plan on shapi them on my bench grinder.

As for the thickness of the material for scales, one of the problems that I have run into is getting thinner metal cut to size for you. I found out that once I get below a 20 guage, the local shop (if you consider 80 miles away to be local) where I get my sheet metals from, can't cut them down. There's a minimum thickness for it to be cut in their big hydralic shears. Thus, if I wanted to get proper thickness metal, they can supply it, but I'd have to buy the entire sheet. So, in my case, having thicker sheet actually saved me money.