I am wanting to put my little arduino project into a nice little enclosure which will have 2 serial port connections, a usb connection and a RF connection on the rear of the enclosure. The front will have a couple of LEDS.
Now the front is no problem but the back connections are Square for the USB B port, and the 2 Serial are sort of Odd D Shaped .
So my real question is how do people manage to cut their enclosures to support their project without making huge mistakes?
How do I cut a square hole accurately? So it looks like a PRO job not something I hacked together.
The B connection is quite small only 11 x 13mm - so too small for a hacksaw.
I know a stupid question but for someone who has not done it before I think is a legitimate question.
We've used hydraulic hole cutters - you can get square punches.
Other than that, yeah that nibbler looks much cheaper.
And a file yes, I forget the term but try to get one with at least one blank face on the short sides, so when you cut, you're only filing one face at a time, easier to manage better results that way.
There are some files which are rectangular.
They have cutting surfaces on all four sides.
There is a version that only has cutting surfaces on parallel sides.
Get this version.
It will prevent cutting into the side of a hole while you are leveling out the top/bottom of the hole.
For an 11mm x 13mm hole, I would mark out the hole and it's centre, then after drilling a pilot hole, I would enlarge it to 11mm, and then just carefully file out the corners.
I'm now more likely to 3D print the enclosure with any apertures already in place - you can print holes at no extra cost!
I often see cases where the seam is aligned with the PCB, so the square "holes" just have to be notches, instead of holes.
If you don't have a milling machine (CNC or otherwise) or a 3d printer to print the case with the holes in it, I think you're stuck nibbling and filing.