[qwerty870]

Whats the best way to put proffessional looking holes in Serpac plastic enclosures? What about hammond 1455 series aluminum enclosures. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[aeberbach]

Greenlee chassis punches, no question for aluminum or steel - but depending on the plastic it might make cracks, and they are around $40 each.
On plastic, a fine-toothed holesaw to just under the required size, then patient filing. Or a fretsaw with the right blade and then patient filing.

 

[erix]

Oh, you wanted professional looking holes....

No matter, a Dremel in slow, capable hands can do wonders. I use the tile cutting bit at low speed to cut holes in plastic enclosures. If you have it going to fast it'll load up with melted plastic and you'll never get it out.

Drill bits are too aggressive for plastic. As soon as the bit breaks through the back side of the material it tries to pull the whole drill into the work and, if you don't catch it, you'll only have pieces of plastic left.

I scribe a shape around the opening with an x-acto knife so I know where my boundries are. I grind away with the Dremel till I'm near the scribed mark and then finish up with a round file.

Remember, the washers, nuts, knobs, and switches hide many evils.

ok,
erix

p.s. Greenlee dies are grossly overrated. I have every shape and size imaginable in the sheetmetal shop at work but I'd rather do it my way. I've learned through experience that the holes I punched are almost always a smidge off and I have to file to fit anyway.

 

[mikey]

hi, an appropriate sized drill bit and a reamer has never failed to give me good results. with plastic, i have the surface that im going to drill flat against a piece of wood to prevent the plastic from cracking.
cheers

 

[Voodoochile]

I have access to a few punches, a dremel, and have a stationary fretsaw. But I find that a drill works well- but as noted above, it wants to yank into the work at sizes larger than about 1/8".

In plastic, I find that if you start with a small pilot hole, then go up a couple sizes-re-drill. Go up a couple sizes and re-drill. It takes a bit longer, but the holes come out very clean, and stay on center better than running a much larger bit through the fist time.

In metal, you can go with the small pilot hole, and depending on the ending size, either skip directly to it, or maybe do just one intermediary size.

 

[qwerty870]

Thank you all for your replies. I have found them very helpful.

 

[Doh]

Apheared posted a casing guide on headwize a while back.

http://headwize.powerpill.org/ubb/sh...0&srch=casing;

 

[andrzejpw]

I have access to a drill press, so I used that. Very good results!

 

[Voodoochile]

A drill press is very nice to have

. I got mine from my grandfather many years ago. It's my favorite tool in the shop!

 

[erix]

I love my drill press! You can do so much more with it than just drill holes in sheetmetal.

I have a 2-axis machinist's table on mine (Enco ~$70) with a small vise bolted to that. With this setup I can do basic vertical mill operations like drilling holes, tapping threads, milling slots, etc..

I can also chuck a jig I made into it and thread a chunk of aluminum rod onto it to make my own aluminum knobs.

ok,
erix