Drill bits can be used to punch any size disc or hole. I have made washers for under rivits and the rivits themselves using drill sizes in the 70's range and headlight lenses in whatever size is required. If you have one of those steel plates with all the different size holes predrilled that is your die. If not just drill a hole in a piece of thin steel like an Athearn blue box car weight. The shank end of the drill bit must be filed flat to eliminate the chamfer. Use it to punch your material through the hole in the die.
I have been able to punch .005 styrene by hand but using a drill or arbor press is easier and more accurate.
Mark Vinski
mel...you are a guy after my own heart....never met a tool I did not like or want.
Paul D
N scale Washita and Santa Fe RailroadSouthern Oklahoma circa late 70's
When I could no longer find correct size MV lenses, I'd use a simple sheet of 20 pound paper and press into headlight opening...then fill depression in with a drop of clear epoxy. After drying, of course some of paper would stick and have to be scraped off.....a simple matter. I then painted back of lens silver and installed as fit was perfect. If headlight was to be lit, I simlpy scraped some of the silver paint off.
Have fun,
HZ
May I suggest MV Lenses. Found a website.....spruebrothers.com had a number of listings. I suspect EBay would also have listings. Installed many of these in Athearn BB diesels and AHM steam going back nearly 40 years. Secured them with a drop of Super Glue applied from a sewing needle.
So, some have been following my travails with my Mantua 0-4-0 project but I noticed that there would be substantial difficulty in trying to put an LED in the loco headlight (top of boiler on the cast metal model has a heavy weight inside) or the slope back tender (light fixture looks good as is and I don't want to distort history by putting a light on rear short wall of the tender). In both lights a silver reflective paint was used to simulate a light. I wanted to put just a simple round clear plastic lens over each fixture to make the open space of the light look a bit more realistic. My standard paper punch had too large of a diameter and trimming a piece of clear plastic neatly into an even smaller circle was a step to far for me.
At Lowe's ( but not at Office Depot - go figure!) I found a punch tool with 5 different smaller diameters for only $8.95 that will easily punch plastic sheet and also brass sheet. This tool is made by General and is in the hand tool department at the front of the store. I have already made the lenses and will use Testors White Canopy glue to mount them, as it dries clear. Don't use Super Glue because it spreads too much due to capillary action.
I also tested it on thin brass sheet stock and it worked well as the punch tube cuts down to a solid metal base, avoiding any distortion of the hole. Here I would caution to use it on very thin .010 - .030 stock; with styrene and clear acetate, about the same. But it makes for screw and wire holes better than drilling the thin stock.
Cedarwoodron