What's the best way to make a hole bigger? (!)

[redders6600]

So I have a lian li PC a-20. The case comes with two holes in the top with the idea being the radiator is mounted on the top, and the holes are used to get the watercooling tubing to the radiator.

I have other plans for my radiator, and have managed to get a space in the bottom of the case. The holes on the top, however, still have a use to me.

I want to fit a fillport in one of the holes. The only problem is, the holes are about 5mm diameter too small to accept the fillport.

I was wondering what is the best way to make a hole in aluminium bigger? I assume a file would do the trick fairly well, but considering I am going to need a dremel later to cut some radiator blowholes, I have thought about getting a dremel attachment to do the filing too - is there any specific attachment that will work?

The final diameter of the hole has to be about 25mm.

Thanks guys.

[smargh]

Nibbler. They basically cut a 2mm wide square on a metal edge. Cost about £30 at RS.

The one RS sells, which I have, looks like this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...27/nibbler.jpg

A Dremel with a soft touch would be fine for sorting out the tiny sharp bits and rounding any coarse bits off.

[GoNz0]

dremel sander drum thingy is fine to open up soft metal holes like the lian li, i have had very good results in the past..

[Diakatarnis]

i wouldnt use one of the nibblers, not the hand held ones n e ways, used on on my pc, took the paint off where i was nibbling and everything looked a mess.

You can get drill driven ones that take smaller "nibbles", but i would go with a sanding drun and patience

[[GSV]Myocardial]

Best way to enlarge a hole I've found is to clamp a piece of wood to the under side of the panel, mark the centre point of the existing hole in the wood. Drill a small pilot hole.

If you need to find the centre point have a quick look at this website: http://www.makeitsolar.com/science-f...cle-center.htm
Using a sharp pencil you can draw on the wood round the outline of the hole, then remove the wood, do your markup and then replace the wood back under the hole and re-clamp.

Using the correct size holesaw and arbour you can then re-drill the hole the correct size.

If your patient then using a file attachment for a dremel will produce an acceptable hole, and will be covered by the Fill port anyway so if you are a couple of mm out it won't show, but I just find it takes too long and isn't as accurate as re drilling the hole fresh.

[redders6600]

Thanks for the replies guys, I ended up just using a file that I found in the garage and held off buying anything new for now.

The file worked fine - next challenge - radiator blowholes!!