Making holes in steel is in general not hard, but it tends to get harder when you need holes that are somewhat bigger than your drill bits are. For my case which I am building at the moment, I need a hole in my steel bezel with a diameter of approximately 23 millimetres. How would you recommend doing this? I have a router, and I know there are special bits for routing in metal, but I have noticed that router bits tend to be quite rough on the old pocket book. So I need some alternative ghetto solution or something. I could, on such a large hole, maybe use the jigsaw with a fine toothed narrow blade, but it it is not narrow enough, it'll just flex and cut outside of the hole. Is it possible to drill a center hole, and then use one of those weird "sanding-sticks" that came with the dremel?
I would draw out the circle needed and using a 2mm or 3mm drill bit, drill a succession of holes 1mm apart around the inside of the circle. Either use pliers, snipers, or the same drill and remove the material between the holes. Then you can use a sanding ring attachment on the dremel to tidy it up. This is how I enlarged the hole for my reset button on my PC-70 front panel.
Or you could get something like this :- http://www.machinemart.co.uk/product.asp?p=060230765&r=2199&g=115
What Hippo said, you can buy individual hole saws in B&Q, get the hole saw for about £4, and the arbour for it is about the same. Obviously once you have the arbour, you can buy various size holesaws for your needs.
I think ouija's idea is the best to go with so you dont have to buy any new tools. you could make the individual holes and then use the cutting bit on a dremel to make it a complete hole and then sanding ring to tidy it up. Sounds like a winner to me at least.
I do have holesaws but on a hole this small, I wouldn't use one. Mainly because without some way of clamping the material down and lowering the drill onto it, it tends to wobble slightly. Even if you cut from the inside, you still have some tidying to do. The arbours I have used have two prongs which hold the saw in place, but not correctly and it often wobbles. I removed these and tightened the saw further down the thread, but now it's so tight I need vice grips to remove it
this may sound stupid but I paid a ton of cash for my 80 and 121mm hole saws... the idea of trying to cut through steel with them makes me cringe. I have some cheaper smaller ones that would probably suit the needs of this size. I usually use them on softer materials like wood, acrylic... but I'm lazy too, and if it came down to dremeling and filing a hole or using the hole saw I'd be in a real perdicament...
I made my 80mm (well... 76mm) holesaw blunt by cutting holes in my dad's steel case... and my mate's.... now all it does it shred the aluminium when I try to drill it..
I'm glad you told me that because I thought I may be baby-ing my hole-saws... *cuddles them and talks in schmoopie voice* "Only aluminum/plastic/wood for you..."
Fair comments guys, I remember whe nI bought a cheapy hole saw set, and the first time I tried to go through light steel, all I succeeded in doing was grinding the teeth off' the saw! However, if you go slow, and don't let the saw or the piece heat up too much, there shouldn't be any problems. And as for wobble, well hey, I successfully cut my cd-rom drive button from 8mm copper bar using a holesaw and arbour with the pilot drill removed.
ROFL "Never exceed the cutting speed for the material you are cutting" How to determine the speed at which to cut I use "eclipse" holesaws from Maplin and CPC, they are very good and so quick to cut when they are sharp/new.
Does it have to be 23mm exactly - hole saw would be cheapest option - but not brilliant at that size - very good is a hole punch - not that dear and usually does a brilliant hole - best way is a cone drill bit or a stepped drill - I use these and fantastic.. But not exactly cheap..
