Sheet Metal

What are the best ways to cut and paint sheet metal?

I want to cut 4ft x 4ft hearts out of sheet metal and paint them. What kind of sheet metal would be best and where could i get it? How could I cut and paint it? And what are some reasonable prices? These hearts will be displayed outside so i need them to be able to withstand any kind of weather. Im brand new to all this so I have a lot of questions and any help would be great! Thank you

18-16 gage steel or aluminum should work fine. as far as cutting, for steel, a Plasma Cutter works best, but you can use an oxyacetylene torch. If you don’t have access to either of those, you can use aviation shears or tin snips, but that’s time consuming and can leave rough edges. You may want to get a hold of one of your local high schools with a vocational agriculture or industrial arts program to see if any students need a project, and generally you can get them fabricated at the cost of materials (although a small bit extra is generally appreciated.) as far as painting, you’ll want to clean the oxide and protectant coating off the metal with either a wire wheel, or sand-paper. After that, a couple of coats of spray on metal primer, followed by a couple of coats of the final finish paint. If you’re wanting a higher durability still you can use a couple of coats of clear coat, and or 3-5 layers of auto wax. I’m not exactly sure what steel costs now, but in 2002 a 4ftx8ft sheet of 18 gage cost around 35$ in bulk. the paint is generally 2-5$ a can, and you really do tend to get what you pay for.

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