Oh, come on folks. This IS Garage Journal after all.He NEEDS to go buy some new tools to do the job.A CNC plasma cutter or a CNC water-jet cutter is -obviously- needed to do this task.(those tools/machine WILL do the job, the plasma cutter can also be used in hand-held mode if the appropriate model is used.)Hmmm, 16 gauge stainless sheet, approx 9" x 5" cut length. That's about 30 seconds of cut time for a hand-held 30 amp plasma cutter, not counting clamping some sort of straight-edge guide to the sheet if you don't want to totally free-hand the cut. Based not on the machine's output amperage, but more on a human's ability to move the torch smoothly and evenly at about 20 ipm max. A 30 amp mechanized (CNC) plasma would make that same cut at about 180 ipm cut speed in 16 gauge stainless, so about 5 seconds cut time. Hypertherm plasma cutters ROCK.There are jigsaw blades made to cut stainless sheet metal.If cutting sheet metal with a jig saw, you do have to clamp/support the sheet top AND bottom to keep the sheet from bouncing up-and-down like crazy.Or you can just use a cut-off wheel (standard abrasive style or the 'newer' diamond rim versions for an angle grinder).And Diablo also makes a carbide-tipped metal-cutting blade 'rated' to cut stainless steel to go in a 'regular' 7 - 1/4" circular saw (with METAL guards ONLY!!!). Again, clamping/supporting thin sheet metal is VITAL when doing such cuts.
It "work-hardens" a great deal - in other words, the more you deform it, the tougher it gets! Look very closely at the bits to see if they have a "grain". No, I haven't gone completely mad! As it goes through the rolling mill, it will have VERY faint stripes on it in the direction it was rolled. Obviously, if it has been polished, these will have been rubbed off but if it hasn't you might see very faint traces. If you can, fold it across the grain NOT along it. This will reduce the chance of it cracking as you fold it. As someone else has said, if you get it wrong, the chances of being able to straighten it out are almost zero. 3mm is very thick for anti-chafe. I doubt you'll be able to get an inside bend radius of much less than 3mm without the edges starting to crack (asuming it's a 90 degree bend).