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Cutting holes with one or more flat sides

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craig(at)craigandjean.com
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Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 7:10 pm Post subject: Cutting holes with one or more flat sides

A number of the items I'm mounting in my panel are designed to be kept from

rotating by a "flat" or two on their threaded shafts. The ignition key

switch and Bose (LEMO) headphone jacks are this way. Short of a custom punch

how do you cut a hole with the matching flats? For the ignition switch I

enlarged a smaller hole with a needle file. It will work but it isn't the

tightest fit. Any other approaches?



-- Craig (701)

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psm(at)att.net
Guest

Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 7:24 pm Post subject: Cutting holes with one or more flat sides

Hi Craig,



Let me recommend the following procedure.



First, make a model of the hole you want out of cardboard, plastic, 

plywood, or some other flat material.  Then position the model where 

you want the hole and mark the outside edge with a Sharpie  (I like 

ultra fine ones for this).  Now all you have to do is remove the 

material inside the mark.



I usually start with a small drill followed by a step drill.  For a 

large hole such as the one needed for a radio I make 4 holes with the 

step drill near each corner.  That makes enough room to use snips to 

start sneaking up on the final line.    After the snips, I tend to 

use a Dremel tool with a Christmas Tree shaped rotary file.  This 

allows me to start with the larger diameter to do rough cutting and 

finish with progressively smaller diameter portion of the file.



When all done removing material I run a fine file around both sides 

of the edge to remove burrs.



I hope this helps.



Paul

XL grounded

At 07:56 PM 5/29/2009, you wrote:



 	  Quote: 	
		  A number of the items I'm mounting in my panel are designed to be kept from

rotating by a "flat" or two on their threaded shafts. The ignition key

switch and Bose (LEMO) headphone jacks are this way. Short of a custom punch

how do you cut a hole with the matching flats? For the ignition switch I

enlarged a smaller hole with a needle file. It will work but it isn't the

tightest fit. Any other approaches?



-- Craig (701)

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craig(at)craigandjean.com
Guest

Posted: Sat May 30, 2009 12:08 pm Post subject: Cutting holes with one or more flat sides

Thanks, that is essentially what I did for the ignition switch. It won't

rotate but there is some slop. For the smaller parts it will be more

challenging.



-- Craig



--

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Ron Lendon

Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 685
Location: Clinton Twp., MI

Posted: Sat May 30, 2009 4:51 pm Post subject: Re: Cutting holes with one or more flat sides

The method Paul refers to is the way to go.  I call it making a template.  It needs to be accurate, but as a template it can be remade or repaired as many times as necessary.



Once the template is right, use it to layout your detail.  Now is where skill and patience come into play.  Use whatever tools but creep up on the line slowly and DO NOT go past the line.  When you get close to the line start test fitting the object.  Continue this till you either split the line or the part just slips in.



Hope this helps,

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