Choosing Sheet Metal Gauge

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Choosing sheet metal gauge.

With custom sheet metal fabrication always note that the higher the number of the gauge the thinner the metal. Gauge to thickness chart gauge stainless galvanized sheet steel aluminum fraction inches mm inches mm inches mm inches mm 30 0 0125 0 33 0 0157 0 40 0 0120 0 30 0 0100 0 25. This is choosing the right thickness or gauge of sheet metal. Sheet metal gauges used in ductwork.

As the gauge number increases the material thickness decreases. A sheet metal gauge sometimes spelled gage indicates the standard thickness of sheet metal for a specific material. Galvanized steel sheet metal measuring 30 gauges equals 0 0157 inch but the same gauge standard steel sheet metal measures 0 0120 inch and 30 gauge stainless steel measures 0 0125 inch. The equivalent thicknesses differ for each gauge size standard which were developed based on the weight of the sheet for a given material.

Selecting sheet metal thickness requires familiarity with material gauges. The gauge number 18 holds no relevance to the actual measurements. Sheet metal gauge size chart gauge or gage sizes are numbers that indicate the thickness of a piece of sheet metal with a higher number referring to a thinner sheet. Choosing the right gauge sheet metal for your fabrication now moving into something that will be more specific to each customer and each sheet metal project.

It should be noted that aluminum is usually classified by inches rather than gauge as there is no official gauge standard for aluminum. Then using a sheet metal gauge chart you can match that thickness up with the appropriate numbered gauge of your product. For example 18 gauge steel according to a gauge conversion chart is 0 0478 inch or 1 214 millimeter. Engineering toolbox resources tools and basic information for engineering and design of technical applications.

The thicker the piece of sheet metal the heavier in weight the material is for building. It is very important that you are using the correct product to optimize efficiency and functionality. To measure the thickness you can use a sheet metal gauge which will show you thickness in both gauge number and thousandths of an inch. If you want to find out what gauge your sheet metal is measure its thickness using a regular tape measure.

Step 1 use a tape measure to find the thickness of your sheet metal piece. One important note however is that ferrous and non ferrous sheet metals of the same gauge have different thicknesses so you ll need one gauge for ferrous metals and one for non ferrous.