Cutting holes in your van: jigsaw, sawzall, shears or nibbler?

Jigsaws

Most every install video uses a jigsaw with fine-tooth metal-cutting blades (using a new one for each window, vent hole, etc.).

In practice, however, it’s difficult to maneuver a jigsaw around the window area inside a van. Most people end up cutting from outside the van, adding extra steps, complexity, and time to the process.

Nibblers

In a Flarespace install video, we see them using a nibbler instead of a jigsaw:

This Makita nibbler isn’t too expensive, but more than I’d want to spend for a one-trick pony.

Shears

I’ve never seen anybody use shears, but they’re inexpensive and seemed worth investigating. I found a number of notes comparing them to nibblers:

Moglix:

• When it comes to cutting extremely fine lines, nibblers are not the ideal choice. This job can be accomplished with shears.
• Shears easily cut through 14-gauge mild steel and stainless to 18 gauge quickly and quietly without warping or bending.

Tooled-Up:

Nibblers: it is not suitable for cutting extremely fine lines like hand shears or snips would; however, the surrounding metal remains undistorted (though it may need to be cleaned up to remove any traces of machining and sharp edges)

Double-cut shears: They also cut with minimum distortion, as long as they are kept fairly straight; double cut shears do not excel at curved cuts… However for many applications in light gauge sheet metals, they provide a quick, easy way of producing a clean cut that preserves the shape and structure of the metal without creating excess waste.

In practice, shears are no good at cutting the curves needed for windows.

Sawzall

The Milwaukee Hackzall (available from Home Depot) with 24 TPI metal-cutting blades turned out to be the perfect saw:

• Compact tool allows cutting from inside the van
• Blades long enough not to bounce out of the cut
• Can follow the curves of the body panels

It might seem like the reciprocating saw blades are too wide to follow the curves, but works well as long as you take it slow.