just tried to drill face plate holes without a drill press...

..... never again hahaha. what a waste of a face plate. i got ovals 

step drills are nice,

Kev used to push those all the time,

It can be done...but you need a center punch, and work your way up in bit sizes, and patience, and a steady hand, and lube.

Stepped drill is the hammer!
Although not cheap, mine was €80,- .
Wouldn't drill any D size hole without it!
You can even do this by hand if you don't have a drill press.

Willem

I found that ovals occur when as said before, no punch was made before, and lube was not used,
BUT if your drill has a little game in the axis, and if you push too hard, you'll likely get even a Triangle
shaped hole  , well happened to me, and the drill had some game on the axis and was a piece of sh.t that i had laying around...
Stepped drills are nice, true...

Stepped drill is also useless without a drill press. I've destroyed one too many and they are damn expensive. Never managed even a single XLR back panel hole dead center where I originally wanted it. I let the CNC guy take care of even my back panels these days.

it can be done if necessary. Just use a real sharp bit. Press hard and go slow to start a notch. Once you have a notched hole can increase speed, until your drilling at proper speed and going through without walking the drill.  Then either use a step bit also known as a uni-bit or slowly increase the drill sizes until you find the whole you need. Starting at fast speed and the drill walks on you causing ovals.  take it slow.

I stopped using a drill press in favor of using a hand drill. I find it's faster and just as good. I use a center punch and a step bit. I have a low speed high torque hand drill that is good for metal. It's a Hitachi D13VF. I really like it and it's not expensive.

I've been drooling over this Fein DSEU 638. It is the only hand drill that says "high concentricity" in the ad copy. Most drill presses have a good bit of runout. The hand drills are no different. I think the Fein has low runout.

If you're not already doing so, try clamping the panel to a scrap piece of wood, so the bit cuts into the wood after it passes through the panel. This will help keep it from moving around too much after it pops through. Also be careful if the bit is too sharp, it could grab the panel too quickly and mangle it or spin the drill out. Slow and steady wins the race.

I also use wood, screw to it if possible, and lay on the tacky webbed shelf liner for some grip when hand drilling.

If it's more than 6 or so holes this jam gets lifted onto the bench.

Mike

or drill smaller triangle hole and then get out the round file and trim up to desired dia.

saves money on step drill if you only need to do a few racks

Metalwork with lousy tools <3 if you plan to build more han one project learn CAD an order CNCd panels! I wish i had. Many projects later i can manage about 1mm tolerance with hand tools but boy it takes time to do a chasis, whoa...

Just do very accurate jig on paper and tape it over and use center punch to mark the spots. Then, starting from about 2mm drill bit, drill the holes increasing drill bit sice by one mm. clamp the panel on some wood as already suggested.  For square holes use nibler tool and file. For xlr holes use hole punch (what? The tool you force thouh metal by screwing)

Ptownkid said:

It can be done...but you need a center punch, and work your way up in bit sizes, and patience, and a steady hand, and lube.

Click to expand...

I think this could be quoted verbatim for lots of situations.  ;D