Since the morons who designed the socket failed to realise that there is a very
limited supply of rectangular hole saws, this requires us to either bodge or
look for a punch that costs less than £40. Any ideas?

=== Andy Evans ===
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Andy Evans wrote:

Since the morons who designed the socket failed to realise that there is a very
limited supply of rectangular hole saws, this requires us to either bodge or
look for a punch that costs less than £40. Any ideas?


A Nibbler that attaches to an electric drill?
Beware, they do tend to run away but you could perhaps clamp
a couple of wooden strips to the panel to guide it.

Roger.

In article ,
Andy Evans wrote:
Since the morons who designed the socket failed to realise that there is
a very limited supply of rectangular hole saws,

A round one would be larger, and the shape of the hole makes little
difference in mass production.

There are other mains connectors that do use a circular hole - Speakon for
one.

this requires us to
either bodge or look for a punch that costs less than £40. Any ideas?

As you've probably found, the correct Q-Max costs an arm and a leg.
However, if you're doing several holes it's worth it.

To do by hand, one trick you may not have thought of is to draw the
outline of the hole on your computer, then print out and stick in place.
Saves marking out the chassis. Something like a nibbler will make things a
bit easier, but a decent hand one is halfway to the cost of the Q-Max.

It's also worth looking at cheaper pure rectangle or square Q-Max -
sometimes these can be used twice to give the correct cutout.

--
*Hard work has a future payoff. Laziness pays off NOW.

Dave Plowman London SW 12
RIP Acorn

ohawker (Andy Evans) writes:

Since the morons who designed the socket failed to realise that
there is a very limited supply of rectangular hole saws, this
requires us to either bodge or look for a punch that costs less than
£40. Any ideas?

How many do you need to do? In what material? It doesn't take too
long to drill and file out an IEC hole in diecast ali but if I had to
do quite a few I'd look at using a collar on a router moving in a
template.

Chris
--
Chris Eilbeck
MARS Flight Crew http://www.mars.org.uk/
UKRA #1108 Level 2 UYB
TRA #9527 PSMR

In article ,
Chris Eilbeck wrote:
It doesn't take too long to drill and file out an IEC hole in diecast
ali but if I had to do quite a few I'd look at using a collar on a
router moving in a template.

You'd use a router for this? What sort of bit and from where?

--
*Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.*

Dave Plowman London SW 12
RIP Acorn

In article ,
says...
In article ,
Chris Eilbeck wrote:
It doesn't take too long to drill and file out an IEC hole in diecast
ali but if I had to do quite a few I'd look at using a collar on a
router moving in a template.

You'd use a router for this? What sort of bit and from where?

Carbide will happily cut diecast ali.

Chris