Making holes in case

I've been hanging out at SilentPCReview and I discovered a great little article on using tin snips.

Modding and Cutting with Tin Snips

Following their advice, I got some Wiss snips (red, right-handed) at Home Depot and made a nice 80mm blowhole. It would've been a little better looking if I had been more attentive to the article, but it's a very nice hole anyhow!

They say, get Wiss snips, not cheap tin snips which wear out and die immediately. I paid $15.

Seems like snips are the best way to make sizable, clean cuts quickly. (Not so good for little holes where you might want a nibbler - the snips blades are hard to get into a small space.)

I was afraid they would be hard to use, because I am not very ept, manually, but it wasn't hard at all.

There are right(red), left(green), and middle(yellow) oriented snips, but just the red will do you to start.

the wesson

wow, that is one detailed guide!!
very nice find!

that comes in useful for me, since i really do need to touch upthe holes i cut in my case, which not round at all.

very nice

Hey that's a nifty guide, buddy. I use an air nibbler for my holes, but this is pretty cooooooool.

Thanks for the awesome link. Gives me enough confidence to do it myself now. The best guide (in fact, the only guide like it).

Cool!

The part I had missed is where they tell you to spiral out to the edges of the hole. That helps you get a nicely finished rounded hole, because the metal you just cut doesn't impede you and push the snips around (because it is just a thin spiral of metal.)

I had trouble knowing what to do at first (use it like scissors?) but it seems that the straight blade of the snips should be almost snuggled to the metal - handles up and down at right angles to the sheet.

So far I have also found that my snips cut thick cardboard very easily and neatly too, as opposed to trying to use a utility knife. No idea how they'd work on plastic. You'd just have to try.

the wesson

Craftsman Compound Leverage Snips, Regular Right Cut Aviation, Are called right cut because they are designed to make circular cuts in a right hand direction..ie, clockwise direction...RED handles cut in the opposite direction..LEFT..ie, counter clockwise..It does not denote which hand you use to opperate the snips..I use snips every day in A/C work, and know the correct useage and terms, in association with the tools.. That article was brought up by someone before, the color of the handles is inverted in the article..Needs editing...

EXAMPLE LINK