BNC hole punch?

[mapperlord]

Does anyone produce a hole punch that produces a BNC-sized hole in an aluminum or steel chassis? Using a drill would probably require either removing all the other items from the case (to avoid contamination by metal shavings) or masking them off.

[Paul Forgey]

Removing all the components would definitely be the safe option, unless you accidentally damage them doing this or forget where a connector went. In my case, my unit had so many of those obnoxious flexible ribbon style connectors that I was very concerned about re-plugging all of them safely. They are very easy to misalign which can result anywhere from certain features not working properly to actually destroying the electronics.

Masking things off isn't really all that hard. Tape off newspaper just below where the hole is to be drilled, making a seal with the tape. The newspaper is big enough to cover everything, probably even if you read tabloids.

Put some tape on the metal over where the drilling will take place on the inside, and drill in from the outside. The tape will catch most of the shavings that would drop in. Most of them will be ejected out of the case from the bit's motion. I also had somebody hold a vacuum hose to catch most of those.

Finally, be careful that once the bit is through, the force you were using to create the hole can now punch the bit right into the internal components! I drilled at an angle so if that did happen it would miss things.

I can understand the concern. I risked an overpriced Pioneer Elite 47Ai doing this but I came out OK.

[ChrisR]

I'm assuming that when the SDI mod board is in place it is positioned above the main board of your DVD player. All you have to do is take the top cover off and turn the DVD player upside down. Drill from the outside. Most of the shavings will fall to the outside from the screw on the on the drill bit. Any others should, due to the miracle of gravity, fall onto your work bench - just keep your player upside down and give it a good vacuum in the inverted position. You should have no problems. Hope this helps.

Chris