[valveman]

Hi All;
I just wanted to share my project with you. It is a modified hand metal shear. These are normally bench mounted. I decided I didn't want to spare the space on my bench and wanted to still use the shear so have a look at the video I made.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm1iwW34Or8

My Youtube User name is gijigadget

I hope you found this project interesting.

Cheers,
Robert

[Otto Nobedder]

That's really quite brilliant!

My first though for motorizing it would be an azimuth drive from an old C-band satellite dish, which can be had for cheap or free. I don't recall the jackscrew rating, but it was made to hold azimuth in 50mph+ winds for a 10+ foot dish, and operates on 12VDC, so could be powered from a cigarette lighter in your truck. I think total travel for the big ones was around 10-12", and there were Heim joints each end to make hookup simple.

I used to install those things years ago before DirectTV and DISH. Always thought they'd make great gate-openers, with built-in limit switches.

Steve S

[valveman]

Thank you Otto for the kind words and suggestion. Those Azimuth motors are very strong and I think that would work great. Before this mod, I would rarely use the shear because I found it so cumbersome to use. Now I find myself using it all the time. It's now my goto metal cutter for plate and sheet metal.

[WerkSpace]

Thanks for sharing your idea, I think I'll do something similar.
I've got the same shear at home. (from Princess Auto)
http://www.princessauto.com/pal/en/Acce ... /8096000.p
I bought it on sale for $99 and it works great.
PS: Also, notice the hole in the blade for cutting metal rod.