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Air nibbler buying guide

Updated: October 2026

You already know you want a pneumatic nibbler, and the amazon.co.uk stars are not telling you whether the tool matches the sheet or the compressor. A 4.4 from a short review set can sit on a listing with no thickness at all, while a 3.9 sits on a tool that prints 4 cfm at 90 psi. This air nibbler buying guide is the order of those checks: millimetres of metal, then air volume, then the inlet thread, then whether a punch is sold as a spare. The six listings, with prices from about £34.32 to about £133.60 on the 19 October 2026 snapshot, are in the [air nibbler comparison](/hub/cutting-tools/air-nibbler).

You already know you want a pneumatic nibbler, and the amazon.co.uk stars are not telling you whether the tool matches the sheet or the compressor.

Our top picks

Draper Draper 70835 air nibbler

Best overall

Draper Draper 70835 air nibbler
8.0/10about £35.56
View offer
Sealey Sealey SA28 air nibbler

Rank 2

Sealey Sealey SA28 air nibbler
8.1/10about £43.19
View offer
Ingersoll Rand Ingersoll Rand 325B air nibbler

Alternative

Ingersoll Rand Ingersoll Rand 325B air nibbler
6.8/10about £133.60
View offer
On this page
  1. 1.Thickness in millimetres
  2. 2.Air volume before the tank size
  3. 3.BSP, NPT and a hose you can seal
  4. 4.Spares and the six listings

Thickness in millimetres

Match the metal the maker prints, in millimetres, for that metal. Sealey's SA28 and Draper's 70835 both state steel up to 1.5 mm. On amazon.co.uk the Sealey line also says 16 gauge as a maximum. The Ingersoll Rand 325B states 1.2 mm, which the listing calls 18-gauge, and it names rolled steel, plastic, tin and aluminium rather than a stainless figure. LiebeWH states 1 mm and, in the same bullet, steel plate, aluminium plate, stainless steel plate and barbed wire. That is one number doing four jobs. Walfront and Cocoarm do not state a capacity at all. One Walfront review says the tool failed on 0.5 mm steel after coping with thin aluminium. If you cannot try a scrap of the real sheet, skip a listing that never names a thickness.

Air volume before the tank size

Two tools can share a 1.5 mm steel line and still need different compressors. Sealey prints 90 psi and 4 cfm on the amazon.co.uk listing. Draper's listing does not print cfm at all. Draper's own page for the 70835 states 9.8 cfm, about 278 litres a minute, at 3,800 strokes a minute, and asks for a 3/8 inch hose. Treat that as Draper's number. Ingersoll Rand's sheet states about 4 cfm on average and 17 cfm at load, with a 10 mm hose. Tank litres are storage. They do not raise free air delivery. The worked examples sit on the compressor size for an air nibbler page.
Draper Draper 70835 air nibbler

Testsieger

Draper Draper 70835 air nibbler
8.0/10about £35.56
View offer

BSP, NPT and a hose you can seal

UK workshop air is BSP. Sealey states a 1/4 inch BSP inlet. Draper's maker page also states 1/4 inch BSP, yet more than one amazon.co.uk review says the connector supplied was not a standard 1/4 inch BSP fitting. Check the plug against the coupler you already own before you write off the tool. The 325B inlet, on the maker's sheet, is 1/4 inch NPTF. NPT and BSP are both called quarter inch in casual speech, and they will not seal properly in each other's ports. An adapter is a planned part. Draper and Ingersoll Rand both point at about 10 mm, which is a 3/8 inch hose. A long, thin hose drops pressure at the tool even when the tank gauge still reads 90 psi. Sealey's instructions prefer a short leader hose on the tool rather than a coupler hard against the inlet.

Spares and the six listings

A blunt punch shows up as a stall at a thickness the tool used to cut. Sealey sells the punch and die kit as SA28PDKV2, so a UK spare has a name you can search. Draper's listing describes an adjustable die and does not name a punch kit. Walfront tells you to unscrew the button on the head and replace the blade, without a part code. LiebeWH and Cocoarm do not name a spare at all. The Draper is the best value when your compressor can cover about 9.8 cfm and you accept a connector check. The Sealey is the top pick when the air figure has to stay near 4 cfm and you want a named spare. Who should skip which row is on the best air nibbler page.

Common questions

Why do two 1.5 mm tools need different compressors?
Thickness is not airflow. Sealey prints 4 cfm at 90 psi. Draper's maker page states 9.8 cfm for the 70835, and that figure is absent from the amazon.co.uk listing. A compressor that holds 90 psi for a few seconds on the Sealey can still fall away on the Draper. Compare free air delivery at the working pressure, then add a margin. The tank size does not close that gap.
Is the inlet BSP?
Sealey states 1/4 inch BSP, and Draper's maker page does too, although buyers reported a connector that was not the usual 1/4 inch BSP fitting. The 325B maker inlet is 1/4 inch NPTF, which needs an adapter on a BSP airline. LiebeWH only prints 1/4, with no BSP or NPT. If the listing is silent, assume you still have to check the thread with a fitting you trust.
What if the listing has no cfm figure?
Look for the maker's specification before you treat the gap as about average. Draper's 9.8 cfm and the 325B's 4 cfm average and 17 cfm at load are on the maker pages, not in the amazon.co.uk bullets. Walfront and Cocoarm have neither a listing figure nor a cited maker sheet in this comparison. Without a number, you cannot say a particular compressor will run the tool.
Can I buy a spare punch in the UK?
Sealey's kit is SA28PDKV2, named on the maker's SA28 page. That is the clearest spare in this set. A 325B reviewer says bits are available from Ingersoll Rand. The other four listings do not give you a part number. A tool you cannot re-punch becomes a stall the first time the edge goes dull.
Does 1.5 mm steel mean 1.5 mm stainless?
Sealey and Draper state steel, and they do not print a stainless figure you can borrow. LiebeWH puts stainless in the same 1 mm line as mild steel and barbed wire, which is not a separate stainless test. If the page does not give stainless its own millimetre, do not assume the mild-steel maximum still applies.

Related pages

Air nibbler for a van conversion

Air nibbler

Best air nibbler when the compressor sets the pick

What size compressor for an air nibbler at 90 psi?

How to use an air nibbler: air, oil and the first cut

Sources

Maker specifications, HSE and legislation pages, a fittings guide, and a compressor guide named in the digest. Listing prices, stars, and review counts are from amazon.co.uk on 19 October 2026.

  1. Ingersoll Rand 325B air nibbler (retrieved 19 October 2026)
  2. Sealey SA28.V2 instructions (retrieved 19 October 2026)
  3. Draper 70835 air nibbler (retrieved 19 October 2026)
  4. HSE — PUWER overview (retrieved 19 October 2026)
  5. Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005, regulation 4 (retrieved 19 October 2026)
  6. HSE — Pressure Systems Safety Regulations (retrieved 19 October 2026)
  7. Hosemaster — air hose fittings (retrieved 19 October 2026)
  8. Sealey — guide to compressors (retrieved 19 October 2026)