Repeted holes

[joaquins]

Hi... I'm building a mixer with 51X cards and now I have to drill all the mounting holes in the front plates, I'm thinking in some kind of stencil and then just put the sheet in it and drill.

I have a drill press and a cross press on it, so I can put the drill just in place, but for such repetitive task I guess would be much better have such stencill...

Any recomendations to do such thing? Anyone have made something like this,?

Will be a 16 channel mixer with 8 sub/masters and 2 slots for monitoring so I have to do about 150 holes like that for black pannels (26ch, 2 51X slots and 1 for mixer) then I will filling them as I build the EQs and Comps. so I think a good stencil is the way to go, I just don't know how to do it good.

Thanks.

JS

[EDIT] With stencil I mean a metal sheet with the hole in place and a rule on it that stop the front pannel in place, so it's just put the pannel in it and pull the drill...

 

[12afael]

I have not experience on that but maybe is a better idea to have a stencil to have the metal piece in place if you are using a bench drill that to drill trought.

 

[joaquins]

I'm thinking in that too, but the drill always have some movement, if I should drill 4 or 5 with this would be enoght, but I think the tiny movement with 150 holes could be too much and just having 2/2,5mm of wall left, the lasts ones could end far from the place...

Maybe I could do one to take reference and then compare, and put it back in place each a couple of holes...

Thanks for the reply..

JS

 

[Timothytitus88]

Perhaps a template, through which a center punch fits snugly (possibly home made from the shank of a drill bit and a grinder to put on a point).

Clamp to your panel, then whack, whack. Then straight onto the drill press as usual without the template.

Then you don't need to worry about your template hole getting bigger and bigger as you drill the holes through it.

I always centrepop if accuracy is essential.

Or build a CNC to do it for you!

 

[joaquins]

Or build a CNC to do it for you!

I like that!! Maybe some day, and nice front pannels would be to the order of the day...

About the centrepop, I have one, but a little error is still there, it works, but the diference between 2 adjacent panels don't look nice... I would make a template as you said and try, nice idea! thank you!

JS

 

[Timothytitus88]

Make a template the same size as the front plate. Make the centerpop out of the shank of a 5mm (or nearabouts) drill bit - double ender if possible, because they are hardened all the way along the length. Then drill the holes in the template with the same size drill bit.

But yeah, gotta clamp otherwise the template will be all over the place.

T

 

[joaquins]

Now I just wanted to drill the 2 extemes holes, so just an L pice of metal, 2 screws geting the sides of the frontplate and a hole with the size of the centrepop (4mm) at the right position, just put the L in the press, put the front panel inside and hit, it seems to work, just tried 2 fronts but dont drill them yet, when I have the time I'll add a picture so you can figure out what I'm talking... For the complete front panels I should do a tamplate as you said, but still not finished the idea of the front.

Thanks.

JS

 

[abbey road d enfer]

Hi... I'm building a mixer with 51X cards and now I have to drill all the mounting holes in the front plates, I'm thinking in some kind of stencil and then just put the sheet in it and drill.

I have a drill press and a cross press on it, so I can put the drill just in place, but for such repetitive task I guess would be much better have such stencill...

Any recomendations to do such thing? Anyone have made something like this,?

Will be a 16 channel mixer with 8 sub/masters and 2 slots for monitoring so I have to do about 150 holes like that for black pannels (26ch, 2 51X slots and 1 for mixer) then I will filling them as I build the EQs and Comps. so I think a good stencil is the way to go, I just don't know how to do it good.

Thanks.

JS

[EDIT] With stencil I mean a metal sheet with the hole in place and a rule on it that stop the front pannel in place, so it's just put the pannel in it and pull the drill...

I used to do that in the 70's, before CNC became the norm.
You do that with fiber board (or bakelite) in which you press drilling guides. These are short tubes of hardened material with a calibrated inner diameter - they were available in any size from 1mm to 13mm in 0.1 steps.
But really, CNC machines are so underused today (most metalworkers have over-invested in machinery) you may find that it's not that expensive. Typically, a metalworker would charge about $50-100 per type for programming and loading the machine, and close to nothing for punching. Most will insist using their own sheetmetal though.
Sure it's not pure DIY...