RE: Project case construction

shabaz — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 02:35:17 GMT

Hi William,

You've got the right terminology I think. There are punches and dies available in various common shapes, but they cost ($100 or more - as an example, this one is for D-type connectors) and require a press machine (could be a manual press or powered). There used to be tools where you would drill a smaller hole, and then screw the punch and die together through it, but I've not seen them for quite a while, and I don't know if they were ever available for small overall diameters. It is a pain to do it with no tool - I don't have one, and I have to drill about half a dozen holes for BNC connectors which have one flat side, and I'm not looking forward to it for the same reason. I'm planning on drilling a smaller hole and then using needle files - not ideal, but possibly the only way to do it at low cost - but it will take ages.

Some would suggest to drill just a bigger round hole and squeeze in some epoxy resin glue to hold it in place permanently - really not nice, but I have done it sometimes :-(

I'm always on the lookout for low cost metalwork tools - if I spot anywhere offering low cost punch and die tools, I'll paste it here!