Cutting a stainless steel sink - how hard?

[petermeakins]

To make space for a washing machine under the drainer I want to cut the sma ller of 1 1/2 bowls off this sink (temporary thing until I sort kitchen pro perly which is ages off). The sink is in situ so I'd be going from above ar ound the edge of the bowl.

The tools I have to choose from are a 4 1/2" angle grinder or a jigsaw. Jig saw blades marked as s/steel are available but about £10 each. Would the angle grinder be easier? It doesn't have to be too neat as I can seal a bit of chopping board or something over the space.

If cutting the sink seems too ambitious I could buy the new one and install it temps in some sort of bodged worktop - but that seems like quite a lot of work too.

Peter

[Artic]

[e-mail] scribbled...

Angle grinder every time !

Don't forget to support under the edge where you cut.

[Bill Wright]

Yes, I had to do a similar thing. The angle grinder worked, with one of those very thin wheels. It was slow though. Very slow.

Bill

[Tricky Dicky]

I had to trim some stainless off a cooker hood chimney and the Dremel with some of their thin disks did a good job, slow going and used a few disks but much easier to control than a 4 1/2" angle grinder.

Richard

[ss]

I also done a stainless chimney hood (approx 12x12 inch), piece of masking tape along the line of cut, marked the cutting line on the masking tape, took about 15 minutes per side, very neat cut using a jigsaw with cheap metal cutting blade.

[Apprentice 65]

Peter, good evening.

I must admit I for one would not try to cut a bit of S/S that is as thin as these sinks are, if you use a jig Saw the metal will vibrate, jump around and will make keeping a line difficult, to way the least.

A jerky cut will result in a very ragged and dangerously sharp edge as well as "warping" the surrounding remaining metal. The metal can buckle and deform rendering the remaining unit un-usable?

If you opt to use an Angle grinder, I believe that because of the speed and the friction, without any coolant he S/S will in effect "burn" and you will end up with a very unsightly scorched, burned area around the cut.

Ken

[Gib Bogle]

I did exactly this with a thin cutting blade on my angle grinder. A piece of piss.

[Nightjar]

I found a Dremel with thin disks fairly useless when I needed to cut stainless neatly. I use either a hand nibbler or good quality shears.

Colin Bignell

[newshound]

That would have been my first choice too, but interested to see someone else succeeded with a jigsaw. You might actually find a combination works: angle grinder for the "lips", jigsaw for the main straight cut. I'd expect better performance with an expensive bimetal blade than a cheap one.

[The Natural Philosopher]

nibbler is the tool

[unknown]

+1 - what he said!

[GMM]

I cut some flat s/s panels when I was doing my last kitchen, using a jigsaw. Dunno how it would go without them being flat, however.

What I did find though was that the first coupke of cuts left scratches around the cut line, which were caused by swarf getting under the sole of the jigsaw. After I twigged this, I put a few strips of masking tape each side of the cut for the saw to run over, which sorted it.

[lookingforanibblernow]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Think I will go with the nibbler - I prefer using hand tools and that one has a great name too!

[Cursitor Doom]

I'd use a plasma cutter for the ultimate in speed and versatility. What else can you do zero radius cuts with? Inevitably you'll get some distortion, but nothing you can't bash out afterwards with a club hammer, if you don't mind the stretched metal of the bowl subsequently popping in and out every time the water temperature changes. Wouldn't bother me, anyway.