On Sat, 6 Oct 2018 15:25:46 -0400, Ralph Mowery
wrote:

In article ,
says...

For round holes, using chassis punches is painful. I have a heavy box
full of them, and rarely use them. Much better is a Rotex punch:
https://www.google.com/search?q=rotex+punch&tbm=isch
I have access to several when I need one.

It is nice to be able to have access to tools like that. One thing I
miss when I retired was access to some tools and a source of scrap
aluminum and stainless steel. Now I am back to just hand tools and a
small drill press at home. The ability to cut and bend metal parts came
in very handy.

Having everything on hand is nice, but expensive. So, you invest in a
membership to one of the community fab shops, such as MakerSpace, Fab
Space, HackerSpace, FabLab, etc. They have the equipment and tooling.
You either take the classes if you're not familiar with the equipment,
or an exam to demonstrate that you know what you're doing.

Or, you impose on your friends and accomplices to let you use their
machines in trade for whatever. This has been an ongoing project for
about a year so far. We paid for all the CNC hardware with the first
job. The owner of the machines is a retired machine shop owner, so
expertise is not a problem.
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/CNC-conversion/index.html
I did all the CNC wiring, troubleshooting, setup, sheet metal, 2 - 3
phase conversion, some electrical stuff, etc. The owner did the
mechanical stuff. No need for a Rotex punch. We just mill the holes.
Unfortunately, the mill is down right now after blowing a spindle
bearing and shredding a Delrin gear. Plenty of other toys to play
with meanwhile.

I enjoy doing some simple projects, but would rather work with the
components than the mechanical part of construction.

I would rather do the mechanical stuff. Despite the BSEE and a life
working with RF, I get bored easily and am better at the mechanical
(and chemical) stuff than the electronics.

While I do put the connectors on the coax and other cables, that is a
chore just to get signals from one place to another and time I could be
doing something more interisting to me.Spending several hours making up
cables for a duplexer is not fun, but tuning it and getting the repeater
to work is fun for me.

I just sold my Motorola MSF-5000 440Mhz repeater and have
un-volunteered to NOT work on the local radio club repeaters. No more
repeater building for me:
http://members.cruzio.com/~jeffl/k6bj/K6BJ%20Repeater/index.html
(From about 2003).



--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558