Hand-held punching machines are for use on sheet materials, which by definition are relatively thin. The thickness of sheet materials (most commonly steel) is measured in units called gauge.
Sheet material (for example: standard sheet steel) typically ranges from 3 – 38 gauge.
The thing to remember with this system of measurement is that the lower the number of gauge, the thicker the sheet material is; e.g. 3 is the thickest type of standard sheet steel, measuring approximately 6mm (1/4 in). 38 is the thinnest type of standard sheet steel, measuring approximately 0.15mm (1/128 in).
There are thicker gauges of sheet metals such as stainless steel which have smaller numbers such as 0, 00, 000, 0000, 00000, 000000, and even 0000000. 0000000 gauge stainless steel measures approximately 12.7mm (1/2 in). However, these thicknesses of sheet metal cannot be punched with a handheld punching machine.
Most hand-held punching machines can punch through sheet metals between 10 – 34 gauge. This means that most hand-held punching machines can punch through sheet metal up to approximately 3mm in thickness.
Measuring sheet metal
You can measure sheet metal with a sheet metal gauge.
This is done by simply inserting the edge of your sheet metal into one of the gaps on the gauge. When you find the gap that matches the thickness you can read the number and define the gauge.
