So... I'm kind of building my own geochron. It's not as complicated as all that; I've got an eeeBox B202 hackintosh and it's running Earthdesk (and my weather station software, but that's not that visual). I did this because i had a couple 15" monitors that weren't doing anything that I paid too much for in 2002 and I was loath to part with them.

It's going in, in portrait mode, next to an existing clock, that, not surprisingly, looks for all the world like a black BUD box with a clock face on it. As a consequence, I decided that if I cut a hole in a BUD box that happens to have exactly the same width as the clock, paint it black and mount the panel's guts inside it, the two would look a lot like a matched pair. So I bought an AC-1427, 50 thousandths sheet thickness.

Thing is, the "hole" is pretty much going to be the biggest, most important feature of this process. If it looks raggedy the whole project is going to look like shit. "Looks like shit" is an outcome I would dearly like to avoid.

The cool way, obviously, would be to punch it. Surprise surprise, I don't have any access whatsoever to a punch that gnarly. Barring that, hitting it with a laser or plasma or water cutter would also rule. I also don't have access to any of that (well, not easily).

So right now, it's looking like "drill a hole, nibble out close to the edge, and then painstakingly and tediously drawfile it until it doesn't look like shit." but I have my doubts that I will succeed in this.

If I royally screw it up I can buy the box cover and try again, but I'd love to hear suggestions from anyone who has any experience getting a clean edge on a sheet aluminum cut. Any tips or advice greatly appreciated.