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Thread: How not to drill a lens board

  1. #11

    Re: How not to drill a lens board

    I uses method 2 on both metal and wood lens boards and it works perfectly fine. I mean I would file down all the sharp teeth and not leave them hanging like that. Having all the fancy tools is of course fantastic but drilling/cutting a hole is not exactly rocket science.

  2. #12

    Re: How not to drill a lens board

    Quote Originally Posted by fuegocito View Post
    I uses method 2 on both metal and wood lens boards and it works perfectly fine. I mean I would file down all the sharp teeth and not leave them hanging like that. Having all the fancy tools is of course fantastic but drilling/cutting a hole is not exactly rocket science.
    +1 Harbor Freight Scroll Saw makes quick big clean holes which can be cut undersized and finished with light hand filing. I check it constantly until it just fits

    I know some here despise Habor Freight but I have no issues with their stuff
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  3. #13
    (Shrek)
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    Re: How not to drill a lens board

    Well obviously getting a beaver to chew a hole for you is less than ideal. Beats me though how you got it to chew through aluminum.

  4. #14

    Re: How not to drill a lens board

    Quote Originally Posted by Jody_S View Post
    Well obviously getting a beaver to chew a hole for you is less than ideal. Beats me though how you got it to chew through aluminum.
    May be it was the steel-toothed villain in Bond's movie :P but regardless who did it, I would still file down the edges, I mean that seems to be common sense.

  5. #15
    John Olsen
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    Re: How not to drill a lens board

    I admire your tenacity in doing it by hand, but there are actually shops that do this kind of work as a way to make a living. Any local machine shop with a 4-chuck lathe can knock out a perfect hole for you at a modest charge. Spending your photographic time in the darkroom or out in the field will be much more rewarding.

  6. #16
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: How not to drill a lens board

    Superb drill bits and many other instruments were once made by flaking rocks. And if incorrectly used, and your lensboard is not securely enough clamped in place, a big fly cutter can indeed be as dangerous as trying to spear a saber toothed tiger with a stone-pointed spear. But that's why serious screw clamps were eventually invented too, although we might have the Inquisition to thank for that. Pick your poison. After the fly cutter, I just ease the diameter edges with an appropriate sanding drum attachment on the same drill press.

    Milwaukee hole shooters? Ha. I sold thousand of them when they were actual tools instead of imported toys. But they never were invented for sake of general drilling to begin with, but for downward leaning workstations when women took on certain shipbuilding tasks during WWII, like over at the Rosie the Riveter historic site at the harbor. The end-heavy drill concept somehow stuck afterwards, even though it makes zero sense in horizontal applications. But I distinctly remember a helper - a really wiry tough little guy - trying to hang onto one of those, and refusing to let go, when a large spur bit got jammed in a wall beam, and watched him getting spun around 360 degree a couple of times. It could have been a lot worse.

    The biggest hole saw I knew about was a hydraulic powered one 23 feet in diameter, used to drill a seven-mile long hydroelectric tunnel through solid diorite far harder than granite about 1500 ft below my property. Drilling created smooth walls with less friction than blasting a tunnel, and allowed the turbines at the bottom end to be quite a bit more efficient.

  7. #17

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    Re: How not to drill a lens board

    100% of the time I am cutting holes in OEM Sinar boards. I believe that they are made from a harder grade of aluminum? (correct me if I am wrong). I first mark the hole that I want to drill with an awl. I drill a starter hole. Then I use my 16" Craftsman scroll saw, that I got at a tag/garage sale for $15.00, to saw a hole about 1/32" inside my marked opening hole. I have yet to break a blade. Secret is to go very, I mean very, very slow. I also use a pair of close up safety glasses. Then it takes 5-10 minutes to file the final hole while the lens board is rotated in a table vice.

    I have some heavy duty circle cutters and circular saws, but the vice under my drill press won't open wide enough to accept a Sinar board, and I refuse to jury rig up something to hold the Sinar lens board in place.... have seen too many industrial and amateur handyperson accidents.

  8. #18
    Unwitting Thread Killer Ari's Avatar
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    Re: How not to drill a lens board

    I use Garolite from McMaster-Carr to make lens boards.
    Tough stuff and easier to drill a hole in than aluminum. Smells funny once it's cut.

  9. #19

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    Re: How not to drill a lens board

    Quote Originally Posted by Ari View Post
    I use Garolite from McMaster-Carr to make lens boards.
    Tough stuff and easier to drill a hole in than aluminum. Smells funny once it's cut.
    Interesting material:


  10. #20

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    Re: How not to drill a lens board

    We should all chip in and buy “board#2” a file to finish that hole.

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