What is Shearing ?

Shearing is a metal fabricating process used to cut straight lines on flat metal stock. During the shearing process, an upper blade and a lower blade are forced past each other with the space between them determined by a required offset. Normally, one of the blades remains stationary.

The shearing process characteristics include:

• Its ability to make straight-line cuts on flat sheet stock
• Metal placement between an upper and lower shear blades
• Its trademark production of burred and slightly deformed metal edges
• Its ability to cut relatively small lengths of material at any time since the shearing blades can be mounted at an angle to reduce the necessary shearing force required.

The illustration that follows provides a two-dimensional look at a typical metal shearing process. Note how the upper shear blade fractures the metal workpiece held in place by the workholding devices. The sheared piece drops away.

Typically, the upper shear blade is mounted at an angle to the lower blade that is normally mounted horizontally. The shearing process performs only fundamental straight-line cutting but any geometrical shape with a straight line cut can usually be produced on a shear.

Metal shearing can be performed on sheet, strip, bar, plate, and even angle stock. Bar and angle materials can only be cut to length. However, many shapes can be produced by shearing sheet and plate.

Materials that are commonly sheared include:

• Aluminum
• Brass
• Bronze
• Mild steel
• Stainless steel

The shearing process uses three types of tool systems. They are used for shearing:

1. Sheet metal and plate using a squaring or bow tie shear
2. Angle materials using and angle shear, and
3. Bar stock using a bar shear.

What is Metal Fabrication?

When using metal materials such as metal plate and wire for the purposes of jewelry making, very often the jewelry maker is required to shape and form the metal. The techniques used to do this are considered fabrication techniques where you use methods such as sawing, filing, and hammering to reform the metal piece into a different structure and shape.

Fabrication, therefore, is different than other types of metal techniques such as casting where you might have some kind of mold and your pour the hot metal into the mold to create the structure you need for a jewelry piece. With fabrication, you use hand tools, some finesse, and a little elbow grease to come up with the desired results.


While casting and soldering may get all the glory when it comes to metalsmithing, neither is really possible without first learning how to fabricate metal. In fact, you can’t really do either without also doing at least a little fabrication. For example, you may cast a metal charm, but you still need to file off the rough parts and polish the finished piece. You may need to solder two pieces of metal together, but unless the metal has been cut, filed, and cleaned properly, you won’t have soldering success.

How to Make Die-Cut Stickers

Die-cut stickers are a wonderful and decorative tool for scrapbookers, card makers and even for those creating posters for school projects. Die-cut stickers also make great gifts for younger children love to stick stickers everywhere. They can be made in almost every shape imaginable, and are much less expensive to make at home than they are to buy in craft stores.

1. Cover the back of a piece of decorative paper with double-sided carpet tape, leaving the protective paper on the other side of the tape.

2. Adhere your paper to your cutting mat, with the tape side down.

3. Place the desired cartridge in your Cricut and the key overlay on the keypad of your Cricut. Turn on the Cricut.

4. Select the design that you want to cut using the key overlay, also selecting any special features that you want to use to make the cut.

5. Set the Cricut blade on Depth 5 to ensure that it cuts through the paper and tape. Set the speed and pressure to the appropriate settings for the design you chose. It may be beneficial to do a test run on a regular piece of paper to determine the best speed and pressure settings before attempting to cut your stickers.

6. Load your cutting mat with the paper attached to it into the Cricut machine, move the blade to the top right-hand corner of the paper, set the paper size and then press "Cut.".

7. Unload the paper from the machine once it has finished the cut and remove your sticker from the mat using the Cricut spatula.

How to Become a Tool and Die Maker

Tool and die makers are highly skilled workers in the manufacturing arena. The tool and die maker works to produce devices that allow machines to manufacture a wide range of products such as parts for vehicles, appliances for our homes and clothing.

1. Get a high school diploma or a GED. You must be good at math, taking and reading measurements and reading blueprints. Take advantage of computer courses as well. Know how to use a computer. Most of the product designs for machine parts are done on computer.

2. Learn to use different types of machine tools and become familiar with precision measuring instruments. Study about the different properties of various metals, plastics and other materials. If you become a tool and die maker you will make machines, parts for machines and tools that are used to form and cut materials for manufacturing all kinds of products. You may even work with designers and engineers in the planning stages, once you gain experience.

3. Find work in a company that offers apprenticeship programs. Most tool and die making companies actually prefer to train their employees. You can start at entry-level with a company and get paid to work as you learn the trade. It usually takes four or five years to become a highly skilled craftsman in this specialized career.

4. Plan to become a specialist in a certain field. Most tool and die makers eventually focus on one type of tool, mold or type of die that they have become proficient in. Be prepared for detail-oriented work as you complete on-the-job training.

5. Consider taking courses at a community college or vocational school to give yourself a leg up in the field. These schools offer courses in tool design and advanced math such as algebra. These courses will be quite helpful if you plan to become a tool and die maker.