On Sat, 1 Aug 2009 10:59:35 -0500, "Karl Townsend"
wrote:

I'm about ready to paint my plasma table...

The way the machine is laid out, the back of a used control cabinet is front
and center on one end of the machine. About 20 entrance holes are here from
the guy that used it first. I welded a plate on the inside so the holes are
covered but it sure makes the machine look a sight.




Too late for you now, but what I did when rebuilding a lathe cabinet that had
a large number of unwanted holes was:-

Use a hole saw to make all the holes the same size.

Use the same hole saw to cut out disks of steel from a sheet.

Use the same hole saw to cut a shallow groove in a lump of copper bar bought
for the purpose.

Note the drill motor was held very firmly, because the hole saw was being used
without a pilot.

Clamp the copper bar behind the holes with magnets to act as a backing plate.
and to hold the disks.

MIG the disks to the cabinet by filling in the space between the disks and the
holes in the cabinet.

Grind clean.

You can't tell where the holes were on the front after a couple of coats of
paint. On the back, there are just very neat 1/2mm high circles that I didn't
bother to grind, just painted over.

There was no noticeable distortion of the panels :-)

Mark Rand
RTFM