Best Way To Make A Hole In Sheet Metal

You have any suggestions for drilling holes.

Best way to make a hole in sheet metal. How to work with sheet metal. Using a step drill bit. With this tool you stick an endmill in a die grinder put the grinder in the little fixture so it can pivot drill yourself a pilot hole for the pivot and away you go. Now it s time to use that center punch.

Your first step should always be to locate the centers of all the holes you will need to make. Depending on the tools you have you ll now need to punch or drill a hole where the indentation has been made to produce an accurate hole in your sheet metal. Twist drills are great for small diameter holes. Remove sharp edges with round file or stone.

For making clean holes in thin metal use a punch as used for leather and canvas comes in many sizes hit with hammer and use wood as support end grain preferred. Use your center punch to strike at the center of the hole. Make a sandwich for clean precise holes in thin sheet metal make a wood sandwich. Simply sandwich the sheet metal between two pieces of wood and clamp everything down on a table or workbench.

At first locate the center of the whole. For lamps you need grommet for cable. There is a male punch that is just a few thousandths smaller than the lower female dies. Always use a clamp or three.

Typically the hole is large and the sheet metal won t fit on my cnc milling machine so i m left flailing. A quick 2 minute video showing some tips ideas for drilling holes in sheetmetal. Place your sheet metal on your steel block and position your centre punch at a central point in your cut out design. The wooden bread layers of the sandwich keep the sheet metal flat and prevent the drill bit from wandering as it bores through the sheet metal.

You can then use a. Next use a compass to outline the edge of the hole. This will create dimples in the sheet. Metal hand punch a metal hole punch works much like a paper hole punch.