On Jul 29, 1:37*pm, wrote:
I need to make a two inch hole near the center of a four foot square
3/16" steel plate. *It doesn't need to be perfect, could be slightly
irregular. *Would a cutting torch be OK, or would the heat permanently
distort the plate?

What other methods would work? *A plasma cutter sounds good to me, but
I don't have one. *I guess I could take it somewhere and pay to have
it done.

As others have said, hole saw. If you've got to be cheap or are out
in the boonies with nothing else, mark the circle out, use a small bit
and drill a whole bunch of almost overlapping holes around the
circumference, "chain drilling", then chisel/saw/file the separators
out. Tedious for larger holes, but you can do irregular holes that
way and you can use lighter-duty electric drills. Goes faster if a
drill press can be used. Would have to be a pretty good-sized one for
a 4' workpiece.

3/16 is probably outside the range of a Greenlee-style knockout
punch, though, you'd have to look up the limits on the punch and die
set.

Stan