best way to cut 1/4" holes in plastic?

[Bogdan Wies Taw Raczynski]

I was wondering if anybody had any recommendations as to the best way for 
cutting 1/4" holes into plastic?  I'm not sure if the size would be 
specifically 1/4", but more specifically, for 1/4" phone jacks.  
Recently, I just spent about 15 minutes with my soldering iron melting a 
big circle into a piece of plastic, but that certainly wasn't any fun 
(hey ,i was desperate, no tools).  

Also.  I was wondering if anybody has figured out the pin config (or 
knows it) for a phone jack (not 1/4" but actual telephone).  I'll 
probably end up ripping a phone cord open and testing it myself, but I 
was wondering if anybody else has done this yet.  Reason I ask is because I 
have a little box that can hold up to 32 seconds of sampled anything, on 
8 banks.  Although, currently, it uses phone i/o instead of 1/4" audio 
jacks.  So I'd like to somehow make a converter box for this sort of thing.


|------------------------------
|silly 32 second sampling unit|
|                             |
|-^---------------------------|
  |phone in     |phone out
  |             |
|-|-------------V----|
|snazzy converter box|
|-^------------------|
  |audio in     |audio out
  |             |
                V

This would allow me to put a microphone to the audio in, record some 
samples, and then have it output throught the audio out.  The audio i/o 
would just be regular 1/4" female jacks.  Again, I have the little 
sampling box (cost a whole $6.50!), I just need to figure out a way to 
convert the telephone jack into a 1/4" jack.  Not sure if this has been 
done, so I thought I'd check with the pros. 

Any ideas?  I understand this might be a bit off regular topic, but I'm 
trying to use non-traditional components and boxes meant for something 
completely different, as financial situations don't allow me to buy gobs 
of ancient synths and samplers.  


Thanks!

-bog
00204435 at bigred.unl.edu