One of the things that has stopped me so far from proceeding on the "Bursar" is the thick steel panels on the Hammond case I'm using for everything. I'm not looking forward to attacking the thick steel with a Unibit to make holes for the tube sockets.
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Use aluminum.. It's easier to work, doesn't rust, and takes paint well if you have any idea of what you are doing.. 😀
It's strong enough too if you think about where to place the transformers and/or add some reinforcement. (See online metals for suitable channel or bar stock.) There are some very nicely turned out aluminum chassis on eBay these days, and they are considerably less expensive than comparable Hammonds in some cases. The ones I have tried are quite a bit stronger than the Hammond chassis I have traditionally used.
I use aluminum chassis for everything and have built amps that weigh > 25lbs per chassis with no sag issues. (Some are more than a decade old now.)
I've had pretty good luck with bi-metal hole saws on steel. Clamp the material, go slow, plenty of cutting oil, and touch up with unibit if necessary. The angled shoulders on the unibit are good for deburring.
I have a new set now of honest-to -gosh Greenlee punches that should make short work of the steel. I want to check on the hole size with a piece of scrap metal to see if the available hole sizes are appropriate for mounting the sockets below decks.
Whoa, up town! But if you do it that way, you lose the audible advantages of circularly stressed metal and the joy of removing the pointy bits and the oily residue.
To be even more of a spoil-sport, the new Greelee punches are "slug cutters" that cut the excised disc in half, so it just falls out of the die when you finally wrestle the punch out of the new-made hole. No more having to pry or whack the excised disc out of the die with a screwdriver. E-pay has a lot of bargains on the Greenlee stuff if you look hard enough. Also prized are the Black & Decker "Bullet" drill bits, that drill much cleaner holes in sheet metal than the average bit.
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