Grade 304 is the most common of the three grades. Sheet metal workers are also known as 'tin bashers' (or 'tin knockers'), a name derived from the hammering of panel seams when installing tin roofs. Historically, an important use of sheet metal was in plate armor worn by cavalry, and sheet metal continues to have many decorative uses, including in horse tack. Sheet metal of iron and other materials with high magnetic permeability, also known as laminated steel cores, has applications in transformers and electric machines. Sheet metal is used in automobile and truck (lorry) bodies, airplane fuselages and wings, medical tables, roofs for buildings (architecture) and many other applications. Thicknesses can vary significantly extremely thin sheets are considered foil or leaf, and pieces thicker than 6 mm (0.25 in) are considered plate. Countless everyday objects are fabricated from sheet metal. It is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking and it can be cut and bent into a variety of shapes. Sheet metal is metal formed by an industrial process into thin, flat pieces. For decorative uses, important sheet metals include silver, gold, and platinum (platinum sheet metal is also utilized as a catalyst.) There are many different metals that can be made into sheet metal, such as aluminium, brass, copper, steel, tin, nickel and titanium. Gauge differs between ferrous (iron based) metals and nonferrous metals such as aluminum or copper copper thickness, for example is measured in ounces, which represents the weight of copper contained in an area of one square foot. Commonly used steel sheet metal ranges from 30 gauge to about 7 gauge. The larger the gauge number, the thinner the metal. In the US, the thickness of sheet metal is commonly specified by a traditional, non-linear measure known as its gauge.

In most of the world, sheet metal thickness is consistently specified in millimeters. The coils are formed by running a continuous sheet of metal through a roll slitter. Sheet metal is available in flat pieces or coiled strips. Thicknesses can vary significantly extremely thin sheets are considered foil or leaf, and pieces thicker than 6 mm (0.25 in) are considered plate.

Ironcad have sheetmetal tools