[chrisb]

I'm making a cab for a porter out copper flashing (I think 0.030).
I need to cut out the front windows. The only methods that come to mind are
Drilling large holes and filing out the rectangular openning or drilling out the corners and using a jewlers hacksaw and filing to the line. Anyone have a good method?

 

[lownote]

A dremel rotary disk would work well

 

[Dwight Ennis]

Micro Mark sells a nibbler that works well. They also have a power nibbler. Haven't tried the latter.

 

[East Broad Top]

I'll second the recommendation for the nibbler, though depending on the thickness of the metal, I might recommend wearing gloves. The crude-ish plastic hand stops aren't the most comfortable things, and after just a bit, I discovered that it had given me a rather unpleasant blister! To use, you just drill a 1/4" hole somewhere within the opening you want to cut out, then start biting away bit by bit along the edges until the shape's cut out. You can do wide-ish curves (something akin to the cab windows shown in Dwight's loco above) as well. Once cut, you can smooth the edges with a jeweler's file.

Later,

K