Larger chassis Hole Punches

[Original Burnedfingers]

Having spent many years in the trade I find that I little patience left and would like to complete the hole making job quickly. I would go with the fly cutter without a second thought because of the time saved and the quality of the completed hole. I would opt for the carbide cutter by all means. Keep in mind that a quality drill press is needed as is the ability to do a proper and correct setup procedure. For a smaller hole I would go with a step drill.

Also keep in mind the proper drill speeds and safely procedures. After all it is more fun to listen to your completed project with all your fingers still firmly attached and operational.

[moamps]

Originally posted by Jennice

Milan,

How/where did you get your buttons on the front?

Beautiful work!

Thanks!
I salvaged the aluminum buttons that I thought were cool from an old piece of radio equipment. They were in pretty bad shape so I used a fine, rotating steel brush to polish them up to this condition. Yeah, they do work well in this design.

Regards,
Milan

[andRookie]

circumphere it is - thanks. And no fool you are

I`ll look around the shops in town for a fly cutter. If its not to expensive and I can find someone with a sturdy drill bench and a nice, slow drill its worth a try.

If you folks want to know what I`m up to its here:

http://www.hifisentralen.no/cgi/yabb...num=1142982861

[superhkm]

off topic:

Someone with english as their first language, please confirm

2 x pi x radius = CIRCUMFERENCE , correct ?

Circumsphere is 3d, a globe.

[SY]

That's correct.

[smoking-amp]

If one is working on soft metal like aluminum, I have on occasion used a T handle tapered reamer in the drill press to manually "mill" out from a smaller hole to a scribed mark for a bigger one. (remove the T handle to fit the drill chuck)

These have straight cutting flutes unlike an actual end mill (spiralled), so they will not pull the sheet upwards. This will of course leave a small taper to the hole. Finding tapered reamers these days is not easy either.
Some sources: Northern Tool, Mouser, Electronix Express

When using this method, or any of the flying cutter or router methods, one should be especially careful for SAFETY. Wear heavy gloves to protect the fingers and stay away from the cutter. Do NOT remove shavings from a spinning cutter with your fingers, stop it, and use a brush. Milling machines are notorious for removing fingers or cutting them. Extreme Caution called for.

There are also special curved milling tools (similar to a router bit) that can be used to finish holes off with a round edge using the drill press manually. Again, strong SAFETY precautions necessary. Enco or MSC carry these.

It is also a very good idea to use a foot switch on the drill press for immediate power down capability if a problem develops. And leave some slack in the motor drive belt so torque is limited to a level you can manually stop if workpiece jamming or lock-up occurs.

Do Not try these manual methods on hard metals like steel or stainless. Careful with copper, it grabs the cutter. Definitely NOT recommended methods for a hand drill either. Use wood or thick leather below the metal sheet to avoid scratching it up while working.

Don

[andRookie]

I asked a guy at (the place where they repair large boats?) and he used a hole-saw on a drill press. The result was ok, some toolmarks left on the edges of the hole but nothing I could not fix. Considering no money had to leave my pocket I am very happy. Thanks for all your tips.