rogertoolmaker
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2016
I recently took a job that requires holes in sheet aluminum that are not sizes that standard hole saws or chassis punches can make. There is a series of .86" holes and one that is .84". There are numerous other holes that are easily made with drill bits or step drills and since tolerances are somewhat loose for location, I used a hand held drill motor. I have a hole saw that will make a .90" hole but the customer is thinking that will be to big. I see that Greenlee sells a 13/16" chassis punch but those will be undersized. I did buy a circle cutter but found that it would not go small enough to do what they need and have not been able to locate one that will go that small. I could use a boring tool in the mill but what a pain to figure out a way to clamp the part in the mill. I don't want to make a /circle/hole cutter just for this job. I think that the .90" would be okay for them as they are just holes for electrical connectors but designer engineer customers want what they want and think that they will be to big. Any ideas on how I could make these easily and cheaply?
This is a Sheet Metal Fabricating job. Not a machining job.
It can be done on a Sheet-metal Fabricator, with Unipunch tooling to punch the holes in a punch press or with a Laser Fabricator or Water-jet. Contract the job to someone in that business with the equipment to do it. I see Quality suffering and you losing money doing it in your shop.
Roger