Ok you are very right those artist use the tool to make the art, and not let the art be solely from the tool. And all those artist you name use it very very very well!!! I'm in awe of some of those creations. I stand corrected!!!
I just don't feel an image that can be repeated thousands of times through a computer program and cut into a 2 dimentional piece of metal is that inspiring to me. Granted it is art! ...Warhols Campbells Soup comes to mind..

Incorporate that Image to something.. Then I'd probably love it.

My inspiration to go into art was seeing 2d images and thinking.. No. Once it takes on a 3rd dimention.. Its my kinda art.

Off subject.. I'm curious, what was your inspiration to go into art? Your by far the guru of this site!! You know so SO much on so many subjects! Its seriously impressive Rich!!

As for the shear. I want to be able to make car rocker panels and running boards and the like, thats why so big. If I have to extend the kick. I own a welder... :)

At the body shop I work at. I work with a bunch of grey hairs.. (I'm called Rookie with 10 years experience mind you) And anytime someone passes by anyone workin you'll hear.. Thats not how I'd do It.......

I had the good fortune to go view an exhibit of a couple pieces of Albert Paley's work when I was in Easton, MD last week and I noticed that every piece in this hugely complex and totally awesome "model" was CNC cut. Every piece had also been transformed by bending, grinding, forging or finishing in some way, and the cutting itself was so imaginatively designed that it actually appeared in photos to be forged in many cases. This piece was the model for the sculpture at the St. Louis Zoo. The model is over twenty feet long and the finished piece is over 300 feet long, I belive. Totally mind blowing to see in person! If you could see that piece you would never scorn CNC work again, believe me. It is ALL in the artist.  Check out this gate for National Cathedral - all CNC cut, though you can't tell it.  I've had my hands on that piece and it is incredible.

On the shear, for six foot cuts in 24 gauge Galvanneal you can probably get away with a jump shear. If you're ever going to work with stuff heavier than 18 gauge though, you're going to want hydraulic power. The forces involved in cutting anything more than the lightest stuff are pretty immense and require heft members in the equipment. Takes force to move that mass and develop the necessary pressures to cut the stock. Hydraulics are your friend in a case like this.

I can't afford a big shear so I just make those long straight cuts on the table saw or with the handheld cold saw. Noisy and really spews out hot chips, but it works fine. For autobody sheet metal, a rolling slitter might be the ticket for long straight cuts, and available on the used market pretty reasonably. I used one extensively when I owned a sign company and it worked dandy for cutting long strips to make metal letters.

I sincerely doubt that I am the "guru" on this or any other site. (grin) I'm just an old guy with a lot of miles who has never had the good sense to realize that something wasn't possible so I just went ahead and did it. I managed to learn a little bit along the way, so I pass it along here when I can. In the process, I learn even more - cool feedback loop there, and the reason that I encourage everyone to share knowledge.

I got into art in a very sideways manner. When I enrolled in college in 1967, I was going for the primary purpose of avoiding being drafted and being sent overseas to kill people for Dow Chemical and Monsanto. When asked by the Dean of Admissions what I wanted to major in, I replied that I had no idea, that I was there mostly to stay out of Vietnam. He suggested a Liberal Arts major, but I thought that sounded way too much like a draft dodger's major, so I told him to make it Fine Arts instead. Turned out I really enjoyed art and did quite well, particularly when it came to metalsmithing.

I received my BFA in metalsmithing and jewelry design a few years later. WHile I've spent a significant part of my life in a low enforcement career, my artwork has never been set aside completely, and now that I'm retired from the PD I am a full-time working metalsmith again. Life goes around and around, doesn't it?

I had no idea such big things could be done cnc! Those works are enormous masterpieces! I can't believe how small a person looks standing next to that gate! I guess I'm pretty ignorant on what the CNC can do. All the Cnc works I've seen were all sheetmetal with images cut into them. That really adds dimention to the machine, I definately Have a different veiw of its works now.

You've definately convinced me that a large shear isn't the way to go. Thats a little much for one of those with the hydraulics. I think I'll look for a 48" shear instead and leave the bigger cuts to the machine at the supply store. A slitter's a new tool to me, but it does seem I need one!

All that experience of yours I really an asset. I think you really saved me some future headaches already! Thanks Rich!!

So I had to do some researching.. When I was In school and they were teaching about plasma cutters they said that if your gonna weld plasma cuts together you should grind the edge of where the plasma cutter extremely hardened the steel, and get it to the softer metal. Or your welds will not be structurally sound.

So my reseaching was to figure out why.. what I found was that quoting "www.me.umn.edu/~td/nano_project.pdf" Amongst a bunch of jargon..
The temperture at the anode centerline is close to 12,000K... which converts to 21,140F. So Super Hot!!

Which is why my teacher was very spacific to say never roll a piece of metal through the English Wheel thats been Plasma Cut.

So now we both know why. :)