Drilling an already powder coated enclosure?

[add4]

I have seen a post on the forum where one guy had powder coated his enclosures before drilling, rapid and all the other sites also sell the boxes pre coated, without holes.
Am i safe assuming i can drill a powder coated box without ruining the paint job?
Thanks

[JakeFuzz]

Yeah I do it all the time. I put masking tape all over everything before I do. It helps me lay out the hole centers, it collects the chips, adds a little protection from aluminum chip scratches and I like to think it helps prevent flaking of the finish at the hole perimeters.

[gtr2]

+1

I do it all the time.  Except I'm to lazy to tape it.  I use the blow while I drill to remove the chips    You just have to be more careful.

Josh

[jimmybjj]

I think Jake's method is safer but personally l imployed Josh's method.

[TNblueshawk]

Steady hand, good sharp unibit and being careful and you should be good. Know a ton of people drilling like you want.

[GermanCdn]

+1 on masking the entire pedal before drilling.  I drill all my enclosures inside a small Rubbermaid container to catch all the chips, and have made the mistake of only masking the top face of the pedal, resulting in some unwanted scratch marks on the side of the enclosure when I drilled the holes for the jacks.

I've also gone away from the Unibit for drilling all holes smaller than 10mm.  I picked up a good set of indexed metric bits, and I can get the hole size I want down to half a mm.  Just my preference though, YMMV.

[mattc]

I drill already coated boxes as well.  I tape up the whole thing and use a drill press.

[add4]

i tried this, taped the whole thing, drilled it, and ran into 2 problems:
1: the enclosure heated up and slightly melted the powder, giving a small texture to the paint job
2: the tape lifted up around the holes, and some metal chips got into the paint  melted by the heat. it made a kind of good looking volcano around the hole.. fancy, but not what i was looking for
any advices on how i could avoid that?

[JakeFuzz]

How new is your drill bit? It sounds like the bit is staying in contact with the aluminum for way too long which could be a very dull drill or you may not be applying enough pressure. The tape usually never lifts on mine so I am going to say that is from the excessive heat. Also this is aluminum right? Steel and especially stainless steel can be very difficult to drill and can even work harden which will make it almost impossible to tool. Also look at the speed of your drill and slow it down if you need to. The speed may be too high which can cause things to heat up.

[add4]

the drill bit is .... not very old at all, but already damaged...  i am usually drilling at a fairly low speed, but i think it's still too fast for the enclosure.. it's the slowest setting on my drill and when i get to the larger holes, it sometimes stops, because it doesn't have enough power so i thought it should be low enough.

it's definitely aluminum i'm using basic enclosures from musikding and tayda.
maybe i should find a new unibit or go back to the good old drill shafts (don't know the english word for it ^^)
i'm using basic painter's tape maybe it's not sturdy enough for the drilling job, but i think the wearied up unibit plays a  huge role in that

[GermanCdn]

The painters tape should work fine, sounds like the bit is the problem.  Banzai has a four piece kit, which includes a step bit (like a unibit) which goes 4 - 12 mm, and a conical bore bit which goes from 4 - 20 mm, both of which work really well.  I've drilled 20 enclosures with the conical bit, and never had any problems.  It binds less than a step bit, you just have to know when to stop.

[TNblueshawk]

I'd get a new bit for sure. Also, you can pop a little 3in1 oil in there from time to time too. I don't normally have to do this, but I toss some in once in a while to help with friction issues.

[jball85]

Make sure you're using the correct type of drill bit. If you can't afford a unibit, I highly suggest getting some inexpensive "skil" titanium drill bits. I found a set at walmart for under $10-20, they've served me well for 3 years now.

[juansolo]

Yup, we do that. No tape, just pilot with a 3mm bit then follow that through with the stepper. When I get to the right size I touch the top with the next size up to tidy the hole.

Inevitably though we end up flatting the tops regardless as it's very rare to get perfectly flat enclosures. So you don't have to be that careful.

[flanagan0718]

I've done it too. I got a powder coated enc from PPP and drilled it myself. I used a center punch, a pilot hole and the a stepper bit. Worked like a charm.