Greybeard wrote:

I have a need, and it shouldn't be rocket science, but does have some
interesting "possibilities and opportunities." I'm working in HO
scale, buildings, and need a bunch of pieces with openings cut to fit
small (tiny?) plastic moldings, windows and doors. One or two, I cut
with an exacto knife, but I'm looking at making six or eight of the
same thing now, each with four windows and four doors. The material
is basswood, and I have an Electropress that I'm wanting to make a
punch for the different openings. Doesn't need much accuracy,
anything I can make that will come within .005" will be fine, but the
problem comes with the sheeting I'm using. It's scribed to simulate
boards, and that scribing is done on 1/32" sheet, so there isn't a lot
of split resistance left. The scribing is nearly half of that depth,
with the grain, 1/32" spacing. The moldings are made so they cover
the front a little, a rough opening isn't going to show unless it's
pretty bad.

Does anyone have any experience with making a hollow punch, maybe
coming down around a drilled hole for something like this? Doors will
be about 3/8" by 1", give or take a little, windows maybe 3/8" by
1/2". I'm guessing the press is somewhere in the 1/4 - 1/2 ton range,
a dandy little finger smasher. (It's a big solenoid on a heavy
frame.)

Greybeard

Not what you want to hear, but the model airplane folks are big on laser
cutting balsa parts these days -- you can make your outlines on a CAD
program & take them to most laser cutting houses along with your wood.
There's one or two pitfalls, but you get good, accurate cuts. The worst
problem for the planes is the blackened edges that you need to either
deal with or sand off; if you're using molding that's not going to be an
issue for you at all.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com