drilling enclosure

[scaesic]

whats the best method/drill bit to drill hammond enclosures?

[HeaD]

Hey, I use a vertical drill and a circular file to "optimize" the holes. The result is excellent!

[theundeadelvis]

I use a $90 craftsman drill press and an Irwin unibit which I swear by! Its a $25 drill bit but its worth every penny. It cuts perfect holes with no need to file afterwords. I recently drill a prepowder coated box and it looked perfect like it had been milled at a machine shop. Thats my 2 bits (bad pun intended).

[twabelljr]

Unibits all the way. Almost effortless perfect holes. Priceless....

[petemoore]

  I take the sharp side edge of needle nose pliers, 'leverage the round back of jaw all the way around against the outside of the hole, to scrape the burrs off the holes inside the box, on the sides where I can't get access for an 'oversize' drill [just light amount to knock burrs off] bit to do it.

[The Tone God]

I'm sure if you make use of the function you will find many thread.

I have a few unitbits. Not a fan of them. I use real drill bits of appropriate material and type. I mark out the box with pencil first, then center punch, drill a pilot hole, then drill out to full size sometimes in steps depending on the size, then debur using either a deburing bit, counter sinking bit, or a larger drill bit.

Andrew

[DavidS]

Another vote for the Unibit. Yes, you can do pilot holes, perform deburring, etc. But the Unibit just kicks ass. I was really srprised at how clean the holes were compared to HSS bits (in aluminum, anyway). I've used bare HSS, titanum-coated, black oxide, and cobalt-impregnated bits, and the Unibit outperforms them all, as far as drilling out a Hammond (or other cast aluminum) stompbox.

A cheap (or better) drill press is a must, in my opinion. I got a crappy, no-name Chinese-made one at a local hardware store that was on closeout, and it was the demo/floor model, and someone had stolen the chuck key, so I got the thing for $35 US! And the chuck is stable enough for drilling PCBs... Hell of a find...

[Melanhead]

Yup, unibit here too and a drill press ... I used a template to punch the holes then about 5 minutes of drilling ... pretty damn quick... I haven't changed the bit since I put it on 

[chokeyou]

just dont get drill happy with the unibit. it sucks when you go a step or so too big 

[Melanhead]

just dont get drill happy with the unibit. it sucks when you go a step or so too big 

You just have to know how to count  ...

but I know what you mean ... I did that .... once ... I can eye the hole size now but still double check every hole with a pot, jack etc ...

[Speeddemon]

Another vote for the Unibit.
I have 2,
a U.S. #1 (1/8" - 1/2") and a Metric #3 (6 - 18mm)

I always drilled the holes for the footswitch 1/2", which was a tad too wide. Now I use 1 step smaller, and it's perfect!
I only use the Metric one for really small enclosures (for A/B boxes or TB Loop boxes), since the drill itself is very short.

If someone needs a cheap one:
http://cgi.ebay.nl/NEW-Irwin-Tools-Unibit-Step-Drill-Set-No-1-10231_W0QQitemZ6033833908QQcategoryZ50384QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Lots of Unibits on Ebay sell for less than $15. My Unibit was cheaper than my 12mm HSS drill. And I can't drill properly with that, it's too heavy/chunky.

Now I have a reasonably cheap drill press and the holes are perfectly circular.

[jjucius]

I use a unibit too, just picked up a 3 pack from harbour fright for $26.00 as for over drilling (my eyes are not too good ) i just take a piece of masking tape and put it on the bit the next step up from where i want to stop.
Joe

[Mark Hammer]

First, one of the reasons why the Hammond chassis are so popular is how easy they are to machine.  Almost no ragged bits left behind like sheet metal.  Plus, they lie nice and flat and don't show any "give" when you press the drill press down on them.  That's part of the reason for the clean holes.

You can probably dab some distinctive-coloured paint on the inside of the bot to identify certain colours with certain depths/widths.  Most of the paint will be rubbed off by the drilling itself, but enough can linger in the cracks that at high drill speeds you'll see it nice and clear.  Knowing that phone jacks are ornage, and volume pots are green, or some similar colour code may work well.  Colour codes are probably easier to manage than "counting", particularly since you can see what is still above the hole but you can't see what's underneath it.

I don't know about you but I find having a decent tapered reamer is also a good idea.  Those parts you may have bought on e-bay for a terrific price may be great parts but may also be a nonstandard size that is just liiiiiiiiiiittle bit bigger than your step bit cuts.  A twist or two of the reamer and they'll slide through perfectly.  As well, many of us probably prefer to drill first and paint second, so as to avoid any scraping of the paint by cuttings stuck to the drill.  If the paint gets too thick around the hole and impairs a good ground connection, a reamer is nice to use for smoothly scraping the paint off the inside of the hole.

Finally, a decent counter-sink is helpful for making the edges of the holes safe for human hands.  Every once in a while, too, you'll get a pot whose threaded portion doesn't quite stick up far enough over the chassis to put on a washer and nut.  In such cases you can fudge it by gently tapering the edge of the hole with a countersink, enough for the nut to have something to grab onto.