DIYbanter - View Single Post - Making Square holes for pickets in top rail of fence

wrote in news:1130356875.624049.304520
@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

The design I was thinking was a basic flat top rail with square holes
so that the pickets come through the top rail 4 inches.

The pickets would be 5/8 inch squares and the top rail should be 1/2"
thick. So I need to be able to make a 5/8" x 5/8" square hole in 1/2
in inch steel.

Am I missing something here or are you just Trolling: it doesn't seem
possible, to me, to put a 5/8" [0.625"] hole (of any shape) in a 4/8"
[0.500"] wide piece of metal - the hole would extend 1/16" [0.0625"]
outside the metal on each side.

Either use a wider rail - 3/4" [0.0750"] - or a thinner picket - 3/8"
[0.375"} - or simply cut the rail into pieces (whose length is defined by
the picket spacing) and weld them between the pickets.