Making Square Carriage Bolt Holes

Phetishboy

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Is there a punch or something one can buy from Harbor Freight to make these holes? I need to punch a control panel and would prefer to have the nice square holes for joystick carriage bolts rather than drilling round ones and then forcing the carriage bolt into the metal. Is there an easy way? If so, LMK. Thanks.
 
thats a good question phetty... if you use a slightly larger drill bit(a step or tewo larger than the threaded part), you wont have to force it in and dent the metal in the process... but i will do some digging and see if my search-fu is half as good as mods is..
 
I'm sure they exist, but they're probably expensive. If you only need a couple of holes...

Drill-bits13.jpg


Followed by:

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I swear you have asked this before, the best way to do it is with a square broach and a press. Then is it just a matter of drilling the right sized pilot hole and pressing the broach on through.

We used to also have a huge punch, that was the easiest, just load your die and steel and push the pedal. Yeah I was spoiled growing up with a machine shop in my back yard.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#square-broaches/=cyhg0l
 
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If you're not going to do this often, I wouldn't invest in broaches. I agree with DarrenF-jeweler's files and 20 minutes of time. I did this recently on a Galaga replacement control panel that had the joystick holes in the wrong place:

link

This new one comes powder coated and ready to go. They cut the price on the panel for me to $15.00 because it was manufactured with square holes in the wrong place for the original joystick.

No big deal--just apply some masking tape, temporarily position the new graphic overlay, and mark the correct hole locations. Next, drill out the new holes (assuming you don't own a 1/4" square hole broach). I used a 3/16" bit then filed the round holes into square ones with a jeweler's file. The carriage bolts fit perfectly.

GAL014.jpg


In the photo above, the red arrows point to the new holes that I drilled and filed. It took about 20 minutes but it was a lot less work than using the original panel. The only other issue with this replacement panel is that it's missing the (unnecessary) middle latch.
 
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I'll try the file method. I was just hoping there was a cheap square hole punch kit like the set of round punches I have.
 
I'll try the file method. I was just hoping there was a cheap square hole punch kit like the set of round punches I have.

Yuck I hate filing, it seems like you do a lot of metal work Phet, there are some nice brake/shears out there for cheap:

http://www.micromark.com/Mini-Metal...eBase&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=GoogleBase

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_...9x00001a&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=SPM2788211901

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/to...ation>Benders&cm_cat=Google&cm_ven=Aggregates
 
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