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What Is Sheet Metal?
Sheet metal is one of the shapes and forms metal can be bought in. Sheet metal is any metal that has a thickness in between 0.5…6 millimetres.

There are other measurement units used to categorise metals by thickness, though.

Millimetres, Mils & Gauge
Foils, sheets and plates are pretty much the same, with the only difference being in thickness. Thickness is measured in 3 ways – millimetres, mils and gauges.
While millimetre is a pretty straightforward unit, mils and gauges are only common in engineering and manufacturing.

One mil equals to a thousandth of an inch. As the British often use “mils” as a plural for millimeters, it can be a little confusing but the difference is important.

Gauge is another unit for measuring sheet metal thickness. Although official standards discourage the use of gauges, they are not all that rare. Gauge represents the thickness of a metal in relation to its weight per square foot. A higher gauge number means a smaller thickness.