We have a very good shop set up between me, my brother and my dad but as far as something that cuts long straight lines I have always had to fall back on patience and my die grinder unfortunately. Cleaning up an edge after using a cutting torch takes me more time and grinding wheels than if I just cut it initially with the grinder. Now that I think about it I have used a jig saw but I didn't get that great of results. We just need to find a place that sells good quality water jets for $200
Check out the Shop section of race-dezert.com, I know that they had a long thread in there months ago when a guy was trying to find a cheap shear with some really good info. If I remember correctly there was a big price difference between something that cut 12 gauge vs. 10 gauge reliably.
Hope this helps,
Shawn