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Cutting trackball hole in plexiglass (revisited)
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ras2a:
Just cut out a hole from MDF (same size as trackball plate hole dia..about 82mm).  I can now use this extra depth for the router bit to ride against when cutting my lexan.  Yipee...just need to drill some holes in this scrap piece so I can sit the piece on the underside of the plate.

coasternuts:
This is probably a silly question, but does everyone use
a drill press for their holes, or can you free hand it with
a hand held drill?
ras2a:

--- Quote from: coasternuts on November 22, 2004, 03:51:11 pm ---This is probably a silly question, but does everyone use
a drill press for their holes, or can you free hand it with
a hand held drill? 

If so, can the variable hole cutter work in a hand held?

I really like those bevel cuts, and that polish looks
freakin sweet!!  Nice job.

-Coasternuts


--- End quote ---

Hey Coaster, I drilled that hole earlier using a pillar drill.  The reason for this?  Quite simple really, my hand held drill (crappy Black and Decker) had nowhere near enough torque to cut the required hole.  So I put the bit in the drill press and it was a breeze. 

Hehe, I know what ya mean about the bevels and polishing...it looks beautiful doesn't it?
ras2a:
Ok, I finally got around to cutting the trackball hole...here's what I did.  I know, probably could have done it a LOT easier (lol), but it worked fine nonetheless.

- Measured trackball plate hole diameter = 82/83mm (Highball trackball plate)
- Got an adjustable hole saw (The 'T' bar kind with slidable blades, adjusted to suit an 82/3mm hole). Cut the hole out of a scrap piece of MDF (MDP piece needs to stretch the depth of the lexan - front to back..to be clamped later.
- Insert trackball plate in CP and lay lexan on top of CP (precisely) - Clamp everything together (again, precisely)
- Turned everything over so bottom of CP/Trackball plate hole is visible
- Marked (marker pen etc) the trackball plate "hole" around the inside so you now have a circle on the lexan.
- Un-clamp everything and remove the lexan
- Line up the MDF piece with hole in it, EXACTLY around the 'circle' just marked out on the lexan, and clamp making sure to be precisely alligned
- Drill/route a hole through from the top (big enough for flush trim bit to slot through)
- Insert router with flush bit and flush trim the lexan back to 'match' the hole in the MDF piece that is clamped underneath.
- Un-clamp MDF piece and lexan
- Ensure CP has trackball plate inserted and test lay the sheet of lexan over the top - If everything went to plan, the hole in the lexan should now perfectly match your tracball plate hole
- Grab an ale to celebrate this seemingly easy yet somewhat head-scratch inducing conundrum...well for me at least :)

I haven't bullnosed/chamfered my hole (sounds ominous) yet, but do plan to.  I'm still looking for a dremel type polishing wheel to give it a sheen, once done.  Although I came across a great UK site for power-tools etc (www.tooled-up.com)...maybe they will have something similar?

EDIT: the piece I cut in the pic in my above post was scrapped.  My above method used a seperate piece alltogether - Just so folk don't get confused.

Craig


teef two:
For the polishing you could always use a dremel or dremel type tool. The dremel clones they sell at B&Q usually come with polishing bits and are not that expensive.

I used this for cutting out my trackball hole. Just put an arasive bit on there and traced around the outside of the hole. Then trimmed by freehand.
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