Skip to content

Sheet metal · Sheet Aluminium · B&S

3 Gauge Aluminium Thickness in Inches and Millimetres

3 gauge aluminium sheet is 0.2294 in thick — 5.827 mm. The gauge number indexes the B&S system, so the same number is a different thickness in another material — the comparison is below. Thicknesses are nominal, before mill tolerance.

Gauge
3 ga
Material
Sheet Aluminium
Inch
0.2294
mm
5.827
System
B&S

3 Gauge Aluminium · nominal thickness

0.2294 in

Millimetre
5.827mm

Nominal thickness on the B&S system. Gauge numbers are material-specific — "3 gauge" on its own does not name a thickness.

3 Gauge Aluminium Sheet Thickness

3 Gauge Aluminium is defined by the Brown & Sharpe (AWG), not by a measurement — the gauge number is an index into that system, which is why the same number means a different thickness in another material.

3 Gauge Aluminium — thickness and weight
PropertyValue
Thickness, decimal inch0.2294 in
Thickness, millimetre5.827 mm
Gauge systemB&S

Nominal thickness. Mill tolerance on sheet is typically a few thousandths of an inch either way and varies with width and process; measure the stock when the fit matters.

3 Gauge Thickness in Every Other Sheet Material

Gauge 3 spans 0.2294 in to 0.2500 in depending on the material, because each material is indexed on a different gauge system. Ordering sheet by gauge without naming the material is how the wrong thickness arrives.

Thickness of 3 gauge sheet across materials
PropertyPropertyThickness
MaterialGauge systeminmm
Sheet AluminiumB&S0.22945.827
Sheet SteelMSG0.23916.074
U.S. Standard GaugeUSG0.25006.350

Steel uses the Manufacturers' Standard Gauge, galvanised adds a zinc-coating allowance to the steel thickness, aluminium and other non-ferrous sheet use the Brown & Sharpe geometric series, and U.S. Standard is the 1893 statute on a wrought-iron basis.

Gauges Either Side of 3 Gauge Aluminium

A higher gauge number is thinner sheet. The steps are not equal — the gauge systems are geometric, so the difference between two gauges shrinks as the sheet gets thinner.

Sheet Aluminium gauges adjacent to 3 gauge
PropertyThickness
Gaugeinmm
3 ga0.22945.827
4 ga0.20435.189
5 ga0.18194.621

Sources and Method for 3 Gauge Aluminium Thickness

3 Gauge Aluminium thicknesscomputed

15 U.S.C. 206 (Act of Mar. 3, 1893, ch. 221, 27 Stat. 746) — U.S. Standard Gauge for sheet and plate iron and steel; 15 U.S.C. 206 statutory weights; MSG (41.82 lb/ft2 per inch), galvanized zinc allowance, and Brown & Sharpe formula per docs/research/data-sourcing.md §3.7

Verified against Wikipedia Sheet metal, Standard sheet metal gauges table (CC BY-SA 4.0) — 137/137 checks passed at 0.05 mil

Computed from the standard's formulas, then checked against published tables.

Assumptions
  • Thicknesses are nominal. Mill tolerance varies with width, process and material and is not part of the gauge definition.
  • Gauge is an index into a material-specific system, not a unit. A gauge number without a material is ambiguous by construction.
  • Dataset scope: EXCLUDED: stainless steel (genuinely ambiguous convention, only one source in hand), zinc, copper, brass, steel tube wall.
Data last verified
August 1, 2026
How this data is built and checked →

How to Cite This 3 Gauge Aluminium Reference

Citation

ShopMath. "3 Gauge Aluminium Thickness in Inches and Millimetres." ShopMath, verified August 1, 2026, https://shopmath.org/gauges/aluminum/3

BibTeX

@misc{shopmath-gauges-aluminum-3,
  title        = {3 Gauge Aluminium Thickness in Inches and Millimetres},
  author       = {{ShopMath}},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://shopmath.org/gauges/aluminum/3}},
  note         = {Data verified 2026-08-01}
}

Permanent URL

https://shopmath.org/gauges/aluminum/3

Common Questions About 3 Gauge Aluminium

How thick is 3 gauge aluminium?

3 gauge aluminium is 0.2294 in thick, which is 5.827 mm.

What is 3 gauge aluminium in mm?

5.827 mm. The gauge number is an index into the B&S system rather than a measurement, so it converts to a fixed thickness rather than a round metric figure.

Why is 3 gauge a different thickness in other materials?

Because each material is indexed on its own gauge system. At 3 gauge: Aluminium 0.2294 in (B&S), Steel 0.2391 in (MSG), US Standard 0.2500 in (USG). The number is a position in a series, not a thickness, so 2 other readings of "3 gauge" are all equally correct.

All 33 aluminium gauges · Sheet metal gauge chart · Every gauge system