[sdiy] Making holes in plastic

[john mahoney]

Fiercefish wrote:
> I have a project where I need to make some
> very neat holes in a plastic enclosure, ...

What kind of plastic? Styrene may be too brittle to punch, and typical
plastic boxes are ABS -- where "S" is for "styrene".

You really want a drill press for making such large holes! The step bit
sounds pretty good if you don't have one. Keep checking the centering as the
holes get larger. For doing that checking, I'd make a printed template with
concentric circles at each hole location.

Spade bits (the wide, flat bits) sound like a bad idea to me, at least
without -- yeah -- a drill press. They can grab very easily, especially as
the wide part is just starting to make contact with the work.

If using a punch, I'd try punch from the outside, so the outer (visible)
part of the hole has the cleanest cut.


Simon Brouwer wrote:
> ... a round file (in Dutch these
> are called rattenstaart, or "rat's tail").

Ha! What a silly name.
--
john <--(from the US, where it's called um... a rat-tail file ;-)