How do you cheesehole?

[brennerator]

WE dont have a mill or extensive tools. What is a good method to cheesehole into 1/8" thick aluminum box beams?

[Gabe]

Hole saw and a hand drill is the easy way to go, though not the prettiest. Our team has access to a mill and doesn't need to cheesehole; however the emergency method is to start drilling holes. Also, just ask around to use someone else's drill press and cheesehole, as it's not a tiring as doing it with the hand drill.

[brennerator]

We have a drill press; but we would like to drill 2 inch holes.

[AdamHeard]

Then put a 2" holesaw in the drill press...

[MrForbes]

Rotex punch! but it only works on flat stuff, or the flange of an angled part. You can't put tubular sections in it.

[Ianworld]

Yup put a 2" hole saw in the drill press, apply a lot of cutting fluid or grease and just starting chopping. It will probably make a sound like somebody is dying but you've just gotta go with it.

[DonRotolo]

Safety Warning: NEVER use a hole saw in metal with a hand-held drill! It CAN be quite dangerous!
A drill press with a 2" hole saw would be fine. Time-consuming, but not difficult.

Learn how to sharpen the hole saw and keep it sharp, every 25 holes or so.

Don

[DanDon]

Originally Posted by Ianworld

Yup put a 2" hole saw in the drill press, apply a lot of cutting fluid or grease and just starting chopping. It will probably make a sound like somebody is dying but you've just gotta go with it.

And make sure to clamp down what you are cutting.

[Tytus Gerrish]

waterjet

[Kim Masi]

Last year, a friend and I cheeseholed our shooter by using a uni-bit on a regular hand drill

[Jetgrindradio00]

Drill a bunch of little holes with a hand drill?

[Ianworld]

I wouldn't recomend doing a lot of little holes with a hand drill it will take you forever.(a 1/4" hole in 1/8" thick aluminum weighs all of .0025 pounds) One thing you can do however depending on the material you're cheese holing is to drill a couple small holes and then jigsaw them into nice large cutouts. You just have to be careful to not remove too much material this way since it can be easy to get off track with a jigsaw.