On Mar 15, 9:54*am, Tim Wescott wrote:
How would one make nice sharp-cornered, clean-sided (I'm not sure of the
surface finish, but mirror-bright would be nice) square holes, about 0.1"
on the sides, off center from the axis of the bar (so not square to the
bar surface), in a round steel bar about 0.75" in diameter?

Alternately, how might one make those same holes in a cylinder machined
out of that same bar, with a wall thickness of about 0.06", without
distorting the cylinder by more than a couple of thousandths (I am
assuming that one would have to do some post-operations to clean up the
cylinder after making the holes, unless one hand-filed them).

This is a thought experiment for making cylinder liners for 2-stroke
engines of about 0.2 in^3 displacement; the holes would be the transfer
ports, and the cylinder liners need to have their diameter controlled to
about 0.001" on the outside and less than that on the inside for proper
sealing (or if not controlled, then at least matched to the crankcase
that they slide into, and the piston that slides in them).

EDM and you really, really don't want sharp corners. Nice stress
risers if you do. Have a look at some weedwhacker motors. You also
don't want a configuration that'll grab your piston rings.

Stan