"Alan Kamrowski II" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I am going to need to drill a 2 1/4" and 10 or so 1 1/8" holes in a metal
control panel (for an arcade game). I'm not sure how thick the control
panel is, but I wouldn't think thicker than 1/8". My understanding that
it
will arrive to me "powder coated" which I'm not sure will complicate
things
or not. I have a drill press and plan (so far) to drill using a lenox
bimetal hole saw. I plan to put some wood behind the control panel while
drilling it.

I saw people mention coolant on other drilling posts, do I need to be
concerned about this?

What RPM should I drill at?

Any tips or other ideas?

Thanks,

Alan


I have always relied on hole punches for this sort of job. They produce
clean neat holes to a close tolerance and are relatively cheap. They are
known as Q max cutters here in UK. I'm sure you have a similar product in
USA. They consist of a punch and a die with a bolt to force the punch into
the die. see here for an example.
http://www.glrmodelsupplies.com/GLR/html/odds.html
They are available up to 2.25" at least and in both metric and imperial
sizes.

John