Small Square Holes-How to cut

cajunwolfman · Post by **cajunwolfman** » Fri Jan 02, 2015 2:27 pm

Fellow Modelers:

I am working on a model that I want to cut small square holes in the hull. The holes are 1 MM square and 1 x 2 MM rectangular. So far I have tried jewelers saw, files, cotton thread, but no success.
Does anyone have any good suggestions?

Wug · Post by **Wug** » Fri Jan 02, 2015 3:26 pm

I'm facing a similar problem.

Andrew Gorman · Post by **Andrew Gorman** » Fri Jan 02, 2015 4:09 pm

Industry would use a broach to make holes like that, but a quick search didn't turn up any that small. You are probably stuck with drilling a 1mm hoke and squaring yup the corners, either with a new X-Acto blade or a file you have ground down to size. A tiny square file could probably be modified into a broach like shape, and could be worthwhile if you have a lot of holes to do.

OdysseySlipways · Post by **OdysseySlipways** » Fri Jan 02, 2015 6:09 pm

if you have a very steady hand and have a source of heat (small torch) you could take a regular steal nail, file it square (or see if you can fine 1mm sq. steel stock - maybe hobby stock?) heat it up just a bit and melt it through the hull, then clean off the surfaced where it melted through .......

that's not a 100% great way of doing what you want, but it's a thought

Andrew Gorman · Post by **Andrew Gorman** » Fri Jan 02, 2015 7:13 pm

From bitter personal experience, melting a hole in styrene is NOT a way to get a clean hole. Poking around I did find some square leather or conductors' type punches:
http://www.amazon.com/Square-Hole-Punch ... B003JIMQIY\
Maybe use the tooling from these to square off a drilled round hole? Or, punch the square holes in a strip of plastic and let that in to your hull? Just a suggestion.

karim · Post by **karim** » Fri Jan 02, 2015 8:31 pm

If you have (or have access to) a lathe, you can make a custom broach pretty easily. Here's a quick tutorial: http://www.sherline.com/tip20.htm

If you're broaching styrene, you can probably even get away with skipping the hardening step.

In fact, styrene is so soft, you probably could make it out of brass square-stock, in which case you could probably make your broach with a set of needle files.

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 2:19 pm

The problem with a LOT of needle files is the square ones... aren't square. Trapezoidal or parallelogram shaped are the norm unless you can find higher end jewelers files. Even MicroMark's are misshapen.

karim · Post by **karim** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 3:52 pm

I didn't mean make the broach out of a needle file... I meant use hand tools like needle files instead of a lathe to make the broach

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Sat Jan 03, 2015 8:46 pm

Ah, yes, now I under stand.

Tankmodeler · Post by **Tankmodeler** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 4:34 pm

Plus, if you need a hole that is squarer than even the worst files, you probably aren't going to do it by hand anyway.

TazMan2000 · Post by **TazMan2000** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 12:48 am

Perhaps a square drill bit?

How small are the holes? TOS Enterprise?
I think using a good set of jeweller's files is the way to go. Use the triangular ones and go slowly to ensure that the holes are square.

TazMan2000

naoto · Post by **naoto** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 1:10 am

TazMan2000 wrote:Perhaps a square drill bit?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjckF0-VeGI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5AzbDJ7KYI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KalwdopngZs

MillenniumFalsehood · Post by **MillenniumFalsehood** » Sun Feb 22, 2015 6:26 pm

I think you're approaching the problem the wrong way. If I understand what you're wanting to do, you want to make tiny rectangular holes for lighting, most likely windows.

Don't make the holes that small. It will be a waste of effort because you can never get them that small and be perfectly uniform, or even roughly uniform more than a few times.

The better alternative is to make a larger hole bigger than the window you want to make, fill it with epoxy resin of some kind (even that 5-minute stuff works okay if you don't mind a slight yellow tint that will mostly disappear when you shine bright white light through it), then mask off the windows and paint over with Rustoleum's black primer, then proceed to paint as normal. It will get sharper results and give you MUCH less of a headache.