About to drill my first enclosure...anything I should know?

[chongmagic]

I always use a 1/8 inch bit for my pilot holes. It also is just right for 3mm leds where they won't completely go through the hole. I use painters tape on the bottom part of the enclosure to avoid damaging the finish with loose aluminum bits.

I use one of the spring loaded punchers and it works great.

 

[yazooligan]

This is great, folks! I went with the spring loaded punch and a 1/16” for my pilot holes. So far so good!

 

[30Hz]

I recently bought my first step bit and it's a revelation. I wish I'd done it years ago. Up until now I've been using ordinary HSS bits and hole punches.

 

[Alan W]

There was also a question about primers, and I’m assuming we’re talking rattle cans. Stick to the same company’s primers and color coats, and if it’s a company that has many lines of paint, like Krylon, try and use primers from the same series as the color coats. While this shouldn’t be necessary, sometimes it can take days for primer / paint incompatibility to show up. Especially after years of teaching, I’ve seen doozies—paint that dried and then became tacky and stated that way, weird crinkles, surfaces that had glossy and lumpy sections….

I‘ve never owned any step bits. But I can see their desirability for enclosure holes.

 

[Gordo]

Good verbage on the paints. Nothing breaks you heart like watching a perfect color coat sit pretty and then 5 minutes later look like lizard skin. If it does happen attack it with a sharpened putty knife as soon as possible. Once it's started to wrinkle it's usually easy to get it off of the aluminum in sheets. Then you just have to follow up with a bit of sandpaper once you can see thru the tears...

 

[Feral Feline]

Or when it starts to wrinkle/fade/f*@#up just take a butane torch to it ala Reeves Gabrels and embrace the chaos for a one-off unique pedal.