[How do I?] Square Hole ?

9mm square socket sacrificed for the project? Not sure how common those are. Might be worth a look.
 
A 3/8" drive socket is roughly 9.5 mm. Too sloppy? Cut, weld, drill, insert, pin?.
John.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, folks. I have a few ideas from your brainstorming. I have a mortise machine for wood. I may try the broach idea similar to the square mortise chisel. We'll see.
David
 
Although I sent a PM to the OP about what he ended up doing to achieve his goal, I'm going to revive this thread to [hopefully] get more thoughts on a similar problem.

You see, we have a project involving steel and wood (our specialty) that involves 1" square holes in 2" x 2" x 0.065" mild steel square tubing. I realize that using our very nice mag drill and a couple of Pferd files would get us some of the holes we desire, but we have close to (50) of these holes facing us...and it's one of those jobs where, once it's started, it has to be completed quickly.

I've watched folks online fabricating and/or using HSS press broaches to make square holes, but, considering the thickness of the tubing we have to work with, my thought is that we would deform the tubing via an arbor press or the like...and this is a rather large rack that will show every connection and/or junction.

As I alluded to before, we are wood people, so we don't own a steel lathe or a milling machine. On the other hand, we do have certain tools available to us, like the mag drill I mentioned earlier, angle grinders, high-speed die grinders, RotoZip tools, MIG welder, etc. It may also be useful to add that 1" x 1" square tubing will pass through the square holes in 2" x 2" square tubing to form a "cross" shape that, once all is set up, will be welded together.

Thank you very much for your time
 
If you are going all the way through, AND have a mig welder, perhaps find some square tubing that has a 1"x1" ID. Then, drill a hole big enough for that to 'slip' into the 2x2 tubing, and weld it into place.
 
Drill a hole through both sides where the tube passes through,
thread a hacksaw through the hole and cut to the corners of the 1" square
fold the triangles inwards, insert square tube and weld in position all round.
 
RedOak said:
Although I sent a PM to the OP about what he ended up doing to achieve his goal, I'm going to revive this thread to [hopefully] get more thoughts on a similar problem.

You see, we have a project involving steel and wood (our specialty) that involves 1" square holes in 2" x 2" x 0.065" mild steel square tubing. I realize that using our very nice mag drill and a couple of Pferd files would get us some of the holes we desire, but we have close to (50) of these holes facing us...and it's one of those jobs where, once it's started, it has to be completed quickly.

I've watched folks online fabricating and/or using HSS press broaches to make square holes, but, considering the thickness of the tubing we have to work with, my thought is that we would deform the tubing via an arbor press or the like...and this is a rather large rack that will show every connection and/or junction.

As I alluded to before, we are wood people, so we don't own a steel lathe or a milling machine. On the other hand, we do have certain tools available to us, like the mag drill I mentioned earlier, angle grinders, high-speed die grinders, RotoZip tools, MIG welder, etc. It may also be useful to add that 1" x 1" square tubing will pass through the square holes in 2" x 2" square tubing to form a "cross" shape that, once all is set up, will be welded together.

Thank you very much for your time
Click to expand...

ErichKeane said:
If you are going all the way through, AND have a mig welder, perhaps find some square tubing that has a 1"x1" ID. Then, drill a hole big enough for that to 'slip' into the 2x2 tubing, and weld it into place.
Click to expand...


To better summarize my thought... buy some material like this one:

Speedy Metals 1-1/4" SQ x 1.010" ID x .120" Wall Other Steel Square Tube

Buy Other Steel Square Tube from Speedy Metals, America's favorite online metal store with unsurpassed service, highest quality and best selection.
www.speedymetals.com

Its a little costly, as it has a .120 wall, but I can't seem to quickly find anything with a smaller outside-dimension that has a 1" ID square, and this has a 1.010. You could go thinner wall if you are OK with a slightly larger ID (depending on your 1" square tolerances!).

The 'diagonal' dimension outside is 1.768". SO, drill a hole that is either 1-49/64 (you'd need to file about 1 thou off each corner to get it to basically 'press fit' into place!)or a 1-25/32" hole (which is about 12-thou large on each diagonal, so you'd need a fixture to hold it while welding). Then, weld around the squares to the tube, filling in the spaces made, and grind flat! I think you end up with 1/4" (if I am doing my math right?) at the 'max' of the arc, all the way to touching on the corners, so a little work would be needed to fill with the weld.

You could of course do better (by price and amount you need to weld) by finding a 'thinner wall' tube for the inside (perhaps something metric, or a 1-1/8 or 1-1/16 square tube with a thin wall), but that is my immediate idea.
 
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