Custom hole puncher

[Richard H.]

Is it possible to have a tool made which will cut a custom sized cut-out in plastic a few mm thick ?

 

I need something to quickly/cleanly cut a 8mm x 8mm square in a VirtualBoy cart shell (see pic). It would also need to be easy to position it exactly 34mm from each edge.

 

 

 

 

Thanks

Cart_cutout.bmp

[A.J. Franzman]

I'm not familiar with those cartridges. Is your cutout in the middle of the plastic or does it include part of an edge? If it includes the edge, a nibbler will do the job nicely (though it will take several "nibbles" to make the entire hole). There's a fairly recent thread around here somewhere with "nibbler" in the title, which includes a photo in case you've never seen one.

[+Stephen Moss]

I suspect getting one made will be quite expansive.

 

I don't know if they do them that small but try searching for "qmax cutter" they consist of a punch and die placed either side of the pannel that are connected via a screw so the screw hole makes location easy. As you do the screw up it pulls the two halves together punching the hole.

If you can not find one of those your best option will be to drill an 8mm hole and then use a needle file to square it off.

[nathanallan]

I would build a rig th hold the cart shell, then use a fine grit SLOW blade on a table saw, maybe. Make the holder out of wood and use the "flattest" opposing edge of the spinning blade.

 

Better yet, make a metal holder for the cart with a cutout pattern so you can go in with a different tool and shave it down (holder must be able to be anchored to something, like a couple of C-clamps or something similar).

 

Interesting idea, the whole subject of making custom tools brings back fond memories of go-karts and bike hacking.

[+batari]

EDIT: Double post due to "500 internal server error"

Edited November 29, 2010 by batari

[+batari]

No need to get ultra-high tech or buy expensive tools. You could use an ordinary utility knife like this one:

 

 

To make the vertical cuts accurately and straight, you can make a jig. You could probably even make the jig out of wood - just something to hold the cart in place and guide the cuts.

 

For the horizontal cut, you can carefully work the pointy part of the blade though the plastic, and cut. You could probably make a jig for this as well.

[nathanallan]

Yeah, based on what you need a "notch" cut out, just carefully carve them out with a box cutter like batari says.

 

Why are you asking about a tool for it? Planning on making several cart mods???

[Richard H.]

Why are you asking about a tool for it? Planning on making several cart mods???

I make a VirtualBoy flash cart (aka FlashBoy). Plastic cutting is something I'm really crap at doing. But more than that, the cases are expensive now and I've ruined lots of them using the stanley knife method

 

I just can't achieve the precision finish I want, it just makes the rest of the cart look ugly.

 

I like the sound of that qmax cutter, I'll look into that.

 

 

Is your cutout in the middle of the plastic or does it include part of an edge?

It includes part of the edge, which does make it a bit easier.

[Cliff Friedel]

If you have a dremel tool, you could always do it with that. They make pretty nice cuts, are cheap to buy, and can be used with jigs for precision. The new reciprocating ones are really nice and will cut through almost anything cleanly. If I remember right, they run about $100, but can be used for all kinds of things.

[nathanallan]

For something like that a Dremel is nice, but at that price you may wan tto go with Harbor Freight's Chicago Tools line. I got a dremel like thing for $17 and still have it from five years ago.

 

This is mine: LINK

[BigO]

I assume you're trying to do this as cheaply as possible.

 

I thought surely there'd be some hollow, square punches on the internet. I've used round ones for punching leather, gasket material, etc. but I can't find exactly what I expected.

 

The closest thing I can think of that I know exists is the tooling used in a mortising machine. I wonder if you could (mis)use a mortising chisel like this http://www.hartville...m/product/11429 without the bit.

Treat it as a hollow punch by whacking it with a mallet. If the plastic isn't terribly brittle, it might work. Some sort of press would probably be better.

Edited December 13, 2010 by BigO