Help! I need some advice on a touchy procedure.

[Deleted]

Hello everyone
As most of you know by now I have been focusing all my building energies on one subject, the ARII Chaparral 2C Nassau version, well, I have to be different and focus on the Kent, Washington edition. I have my reasons and one of them is the BIG problem I am facing, cutting out the dump pipe openings in the rear screen sections, without distorting or screwing up the screen inlays. I thought about a hand held, single hole punch and maybe trying to put an edge on outer edge of the punch, but I'm afraid the brass is a bit too tough to do this cleanly. I would be willing to try and snip away the brass until I had a nice, tidy neat circular hole, there will be trim rings outlining the outside edge of the holes. I cannot begin to tell you what the diameter of the brass threads are that make up the mesh I don't own a caliper or micrometer. i was going to fake it, by cutting black circles from decal sheet just to fit inside the trim rings and then fake dump pipes sticking out of THAT area. I am NOT too fond of that plan. does anybody know if there is a pair of snippers small enough to snip a nice neat hole??  

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[4wheels]

I think I would double-sided tape it to a substantial chunk of very smooth scrap metal and fashion a small, very sharp chisel (I have some old jeweler's screwdrivers I've used for this purpose) to cut the circles out. I would use P/E circles as the trim rings to hide the cut edges. The first couple cuts might wrinkle things a little but I would start well inside my finished edge and after relieving the center, work my way out. If you do end up with some wrinkling, some light taps with a smooth-faced hammer will take them out. HTH!

Brian

[afx]

If you choose the shears route Tamiya makes very nice set for photo etch.

[robhart]

I don't recommend using a punch. I've tried punching thin sheet metal and thick foil with a Waldron Punch and Die set and it almost always stretches and distorts the edges. I've trimmed photo etched screen with small scissors with good results.

[4wheels]

The punch removes all the material at once, stressing the surrounding areas. My chisel method works if you remove a little material in the middle of the area first and then work you away around the final cut line. This gives the removed material a place to go without stressing the remainder.

Brian

[robhart]

After reviewing this thread again, I think Brian's chisel idea is the best and least risky choice.

[Patrick]

I thinkBrian's method is the best to try first. I like the idea of using round bezels for the finished look. I had the same trouble with the Monogram 2D.

Patrick

[Deleted]

Well Columbus took a chance and so did I. I solved my problem. My thing was since its brass mesh its going to be "soft". I used a fine point sharpy to set up my holes on the mesh and then taking a pin vise I chose the smallest, yet closest drill (I have no idea what size) I had to the mesh opening, I pretty much centered it and just took my time working through the mesh, making a tiny hole. I just kept going up another step with the drill until I had no more of those and went to a conventional 1/8" drill. I worked that until I had a clean, wide open hole ( I was amazed this worked, but the key I think was SHARP drills) I then fired up my batter powered Dremel and used a "reamer" set on low and proceed slowly, after about 20 minutes all told I had my holes!!!

Thanks for all the tips.