heavy duty sheet metal nibbler on steroids

[joaquins]

I use the jigsaw, mounted upside down on a table...

I hadn't thought of that. Clamp jigsaw in vice, triggerlock, and a great view of what you are cutting, without the whole damn jigsaw in the way of seeing where you are at, trying to closely follow a vibrating, blurry line.

Thanks, I'll try that next time, if I haven't kludged together some wacky prototype eagle-beak nibbler by then.

Gene

I grabbed a piece of MDF and make a few holes in it to hold the jigsaw, so the surface around the saw is greater and much confortable to work on, probably would be a very good idea to make something in steel or something so it's much thinner. Now it's to thick and takes too much of the blade and it wobbles a lot, and very short thin blades can't be used at all. The base plate of my jigsaw already had 4 tapped holes which went great with some M4 screws I had around, YMMV.

JS

 

[gyraf]

For larger holes in aluminium, like for frontpanel meters, I use a normal hand-router with standard 6mm bit, running in a template cut out of an acrylic plate.

Apply a good deal of cutting oil, and it goes surprising well. Cutting at 22KRpm in 4mm Alu, 25K at 3mm. Let the tool do the work - only gentle pushing.

Ikea has some neutral parafine oil under the name "Skydd" that works really well as cutting oil for this purpose.

Pic: Routing G10 meter cutout

..and yes, this is the way every Gyraf unit made since 1997 was cut..

Jakob E.

 

[Marik]

For larger holes in aluminium, like for frontpanel meters, I use a normal hand-router with standard 6mm bit, running in a template cut out of an acrylic plate.

Apply a good deal of cutting oil, and it goes surprising well. Cutting at 22KRpm in 4mm Alu, 25K at 3mm. Let the tool do the work - only gentle pushing.

Ikea has some neutral parafine oil under the name "Skydd" that works really well as cutting oil for this purpose.

Pic: Routing G10 meter cutout

..and yes, this is the way every Gyraf unit made since 1997 was cut..

Jakob E.

Jakob,

I thought you had a CNC mill    :-X

Best, M

 

[gyraf]

Naa, my CNC is only really effective for small detailed sissywork like engraving and marking drill spots.  I'm running it with a small 160W W&H "handpiece" type spindle, which gives near-perfect single-line 0.3mm engraving, but which is not up to the bigger works.

https://www.facebook.com/gyrafaudio/videos/1562121024039593/

Jakob E.

 

[nielsk]

There are a number of oscillating cutting tools out there that work great, cut straight lines no problem
https://www.dremel.com/en-us/Tools/Pages/CategoryProducts.aspx?catid=2094&campaign_id=non-brand-multi-max-tools&gclid=CMiT1MTJlssCFdcRgQodgsAG0Q

 

[mobyd]

For small volume rectangular (and any other shape) hole production, It's hard to go past a flypress. Once upon a time every small plumbers merchant had one of these. These days when nobody makes anything anymore, they can be picked up for close to scrap value (mine cost $200).
M

 

[Gene Pink]

...It's hard to go past a flypress....

Oh, man, that's my kind of tool. (insert Tim Allen grunt)

Love it.

Gene

 

[JohnRoberts]

Are the punch and die tools indexed, or do they just trust the operator to line them up properly when setting up?

I've seen lots of hand punches that just had long handles for more leverage, quicker but not as much shearing force as that head screw arrangement.  I'd hate to make a lot of holes with that, OK for onsey-twosey.

JR

 

[Gene Pink]

I'd hate to make a lot of holes with that, OK for onsey-twosey.

It looks easy enough to operate, give that handle a good throw to spin it, and then duck when that bowling ball of a counterweight comes around your way.

Seriously, by the coarseness of those threads (recirculating ball?), I would guess it is more of a quarter-turn device. Line it up, kiss the surface, back it off a little bit, and get a little running start where the counterweight does most of the work.

That beast would see a lot of use here. Nothing wrong with the old-school ways.

Gene

 

[rob_gould]

I'd never seen one of these before.  I looked it up

https://youtu.be/TQCJv2BImJ8

Amazing! This looks like a pretty small flypress as well.

 

[Whoops]

Drilling Square holes Explained:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5AzbDJ7KYI