I found some pneumatic “nippers” online and ordered Nile model;
MP35A and blade #FD9P.
The site said the cutter has 990 pounds of cutting pressure, and the
blade opening is 0.5515" or about 14mm.
The company is not a jewelry industry company, so the price was much
more reasonable than what I found in the jewelry biz catalogs. I
ordered yesterday, the cutters came today (the company is here in
Michigan, about 35 miles from where I live).
I hooked it up to the compressor right away and-- WOW! It cuts
through hard silicon bronze sprues like butter. To test it I shoved a
sprue tree in there that was about 12mm thick. It took two cuts to
shear it off evenly. Anything thinner takes just one cut.
Yeah, it was kind of expensive, but IMO it’s worth every penny as I
also have shoulder and upper arm tendon issues. Bolt cutters don’t
hurt my hands, but they hurt the rest of my arm. There was just no
way I could cut sprues without pain no matter what I used.
To misquote Scarlett O’Hara, “As God is my witness, I’ll never cut a
sprue by hand again”.
If anybody cares, the company that sells these wonders is DME, and
here’s a link to the pneumatic cutters section of their catalog; the
cutters are on p. 673 IndustrialSupplies2020 [PDF File]
Kathy “happy hands” Johnson
Feathered Gems Jewelry