Ever hear of a Rodman nibbler?

My wife saw one of these at AirVenture and thought it would be useful for
her projects. I'd never heard of it, and seemed pricey ($180 for a nibbler
that attaches to your electric drill, plus some spare cutters.)

Anybody got any word on this?

thanks

Ed Wischmeyer

Ed Wischmeyer wrote:

My wife saw one of these at AirVenture and thought it would be useful for
her projects. I'd never heard of it, and seemed pricey ($180 for a nibbler
that attaches to your electric drill, plus some spare cutters.)

Anybody got any word on this?

thanks

Ed Wischmeyer

Yup, bought one several years ago for somewhat less money. The first
point is: you never saw the people demo'ing them make a straight cut on
a layout line. They show you free-hand, nonstop, random curves that look
great, but this is not what most people want to do. That said, they do
nibble like crazy. You get much better control with a variable speed
drill set at a low speed.

Ed Wischmeyer wrote in message news:2004081509290016807%edwisch@alummitedu...
My wife saw one of these at AirVenture and thought it would be useful for
her projects. I'd never heard of it, and seemed pricey ($180 for a nibbler
that attaches to your electric drill, plus some spare cutters.)

Anybody got any word on this?

thanks

Ed Wischmeyer


Rodman nibbler? Oh, never mind. I thought you were asking about Carmen Electra.

A "Made In E.U." nibbler attachment from Harbor Freight costs $35.

Try before you buy. After several long test cuts, take your bench brush
and brush all the razor sharp quarter moon chips off your piece of sheet
metal and your work bench and everything else within a yard of the
cutter. (Or you can use your air blower to spread them evenly
throughout your shop). Shake them out of your clothes, shoes, ears,
nostrils and hair. See how you like sweeping them up off the floor.
See how they proliferate like kitty litter thoughout your house. See
what happens when you get a few chips between a couple sheets of shiny,
new alclad aluminum. See how long the cutter lasts when cutting steel,
stainless steel or thicker gage aluminum. See how you like the
performance of the tool with a dull cutter.

For cutting parts out of sheet aluminum, I prefer light weight aluminum
handled tinner's snips, a bench notcher, a Beverly bench shear or
throatless shear, rotex punch, whitney hand punch, hand nibbler, band
saw, die grinder, electric or pneumatic shear, saber saw, table saw,
chop saw, router, sawzall, and skilsaw. More or less in that order,
except that the vast majority of aircraft parts I get cut out are laser,
waterjet, or CNC punched because it's a lot cheaper and more accurate
that way (if I assume my time is worth something). I avoid using
"aviation" snips because they leave a rough, warped edge. One set of
tinner's snips in a sheet metal shop with 5-10 guys working full time
has lasted us 5 years, and it still cuts paper just fine.

Ed Wischmeyer wrote:
My wife saw one of these at AirVenture and thought it would be useful
for her projects. I'd never heard of it, and seemed pricey ($180 for a
nibbler that attaches to your electric drill, plus some spare cutters.)

Anybody got any word on this?

thanks

Ed Wischmeyer

--
John Kimmel


I think it will be quiet around here now. So long.

Ed,

I have one. I've had it a little over a year but have just been making
extensive use of it within the last couple months.

It takes some practice to cut on a line but eventually you can attain fairly
good accuracy with it.

I hung an ice cream bucket underneath my bench mounted nibbler and it
catches 99% of the chips.

I cut a firewall yesterday out of 26 gauge galvanized and I cut my
instrument panel out of .063, 6061 T6.

I cut some small pieces of .032, 4130. That kind of raised hell with the
punch but it finished the job.

I just changed out the original punch and replaced it with one of the two
spares they give you with the kit.

Keep it clean of chips and sloppy with oil and I think it works pretty good.

Overall I'm happy with it but your mileage may vary.

BillC


"Ed Wischmeyer" wrote in message
news:2004081509290016807%edwisch@alummitedu...
My wife saw one of these at AirVenture and thought it would be useful for
her projects. I'd never heard of it, and seemed pricey ($180 for a nibbler
that attaches to your electric drill, plus some spare cutters.)

Anybody got any word on this?

thanks

Ed Wischmeyer