View Single Post
  #20   Report Post  
Posted to rec.crafts.metalworking
John B.[_3_] John B.[_3_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 539
Default Cut an accurate 1/2" square hole through 1/4" aluminum without tools?

On Sun, 10 Apr 2016 11:08:12 -0000 (UTC), John Doe
wrote:

I never said "don't take it literally". When someone says something that
cannot be taken literally, then normal people assume it means something
less than the literal meaning.

Every square is going to have round corners. According to my research,
some sophisticated tools for cutting square holes leave rounded corners.
In my case, they can be significantly rounded, but I'm probably not
going to spend that much for this project.


You say square and the definition of "square" is "a plane rectangle
with four equal sides and four right angles; a four-sided regular
polygon". No mention of round corners there whatsoever.

So if you have rationalized your square to be something else perhaps
you should have described your fantasy before asking how to make it.

:

On Sun, 10 Apr 2016 00:11:01 -0000 (UTC), John Doe
wrote:

Researching the issue... I see some ways to drill a square hole in
aluminum for hundreds of dollars.

Seems to me an inexpensive do-it-yourself way to do this slowly would be
to place a stencil pattern square over the material and then use a drill
or rotary tool with the cutting surface of the bit below the pattern.
And just move the tool around until it hacks the hole square. It might
be accurate enough if done carefully. But the rotary tool needs to be
held perpendicular while being moved around. I guess it could be done on
a rotary/router type table, while moving the material instead of the
cutting tool.

Any keywords for that sort of thing?

Thanks.


Great. You designated a square. How do you cut the 90 degree corners
with a round tool bit?

Or as you say, "don't take it literally", can the "square" have round
corners?


I wrote:

I need to cut a 1/2" square through 1/4" aluminum. It doesn't have to
be centered, but the dimensions of the hole need to be correct.

I'd like to use a router type tool that I made, but the aluminum would
have to be perfectly square.

Any tricky way to do that?

Thanks.

--

Cheers,

John B.