Shears, brakes & spot welders · review
A named steel grade at a published thickness, in a sheet big enough to cut a bracket from — and the only item in this hub that states what the metal actually is.
Where we come out The only item in this hub that names its steel grade and publishes its thickness four ways — a clean cold rolled sheet whose 1.52 mm (0.06 in) is the figure to read against your shear.
This shelf is a shelf of machines rated in mild steel of a given gauge, and this is a sheet of mild steel of a given gauge: A36 cold rolled, 1/16 inch, published also as 16 GA, 0.060 in and 1.52 mm (0.06 in), in a piece 36 by 24 inches.
Two things on the listing are better than a steel listing usually manages. It names the grade rather than the family — A36, a structural steel with a specified minimum yield, where every other piece of metal in this hub is sold as “mild steel” and nothing more. And it says cold rolled, which is the difference between a clean, accurately sized surface you can weld and paint directly and a hot rolled sheet carrying mill scale that has to be ground off first.
The figure to carry away is 1.52 mm (0.06 in), because it is the one to read against your own shear. The buying tip at the top of this page is that capacity is quoted in mild steel and nothing else, and that a shear used over its rating bends its blade mounting permanently rather than simply stopping. A36 is ordinary low-carbon steel to weld and slightly unforgiving to form: structural grades are specified for strength rather than for drawing, so a tight bend across the grain can crack where a forming sheet would stretch. Flatness, which on a 36 by 24 in sheet decides how much of it is usable, is not published.
Read on the day this page was built: $60 at the American Amazon shop.
Read from Keepa on the day this page was last revised; stock and price both move without notice.
Prices quoted in this text were read on 2026-10-07. The live price is at the top of the page.
| Amazon reference | B0GWF8J6XL |
|---|---|
| EAN | 0723269330540 |
That depends on the rating, and this is the case this shelf's buying tip is written for. Sixteen gauge cold rolled is 1.52 mm (0.06 in) of mild steel. The lever shears in this hub are rated in mild steel at a stated thickness, and a shear used above its rating does not refuse — it bends the blade mounting. Read your own machine’s figure against 1.52 mm (0.06 in) before cutting, and remember that the rating assumes mild steel and nothing harder.
A36 is an American structural steel grade with a specified minimum yield strength, which is why it is used for brackets and frames. It matters here because it is the only grade named anywhere in this hub — everything else, including the coupons on this shelf, is sold as "mild steel". For welding it behaves like ordinary low-carbon steel. For forming it is less forgiving than a drawing-quality sheet: a tight bend across the grain on structural steel can crack where a forming grade would not.
Surface and tolerance. Hot rolled sheet comes off the mill with a dark oxide scale and looser thickness tolerance; cold rolled is passed through again cold, which gives a smooth, clean, accurately sized sheet. For welding that means less grinding before you start, and for painting it means a surface that does not need stripping. The listing is specific about it, which on a steel listing is rarer than it should be.
Details checked on October 7, 2026.
Brackets, repair plates and shop fixtures, where the grade and the gauge both have to be known
Specifications: the manufacturer sheet for welding and metalworking machines and the matching Amazon product page. Prices and availability: Keepa. Every figure on this page names its source.
500 mm (19.7 in) blade · bench-fixed · 1.5 mm (0.06 in) test cut · €189
Half a meter of blade — the first machine here that cuts a panel edge in one stroke.
Best for: Panel work: cutting sheet to size cleanly, in one pull
20 coupons · 2 × 4 in · 11 GA / 3.05 mm (0.12 in) mild steel
Twenty pieces of 3 mm (0.12 in) mild steel cut to the same size — the cheapest way to learn a weld without ruining the thing you meant to make.
Best for: Learning a process, setting a machine, or proving a parameter before it touches real work
≈ $30
1,000 mm (39.4 in) working width · bends to 135° · shear included · €370
A meter-wide folder with a shear on the same frame — bending and cutting in one machine.
Best for: Making boxes, trays, brackets and flashings from sheet, start to finish
