The first step was to cut the hole. We went out to the porch and laid out some cardboard to cut on. Laying the case on top of the cardboard, we fitted our Dremel with a reinforced cutting wheel and plugged in. Cutting with a dremel is a lot like holding a bar of soap. It's not too difficult, but just when you're using it on a sensitive part, it slips. We started off on a low-power setting because we were scared. It makes a lot of noise and sparks when you touch it to the metal. Make sure you have gloves and safety goggles on because tiny bits of metal fly everywhere. After our first cut there was microdust steel particles all over the inside of the case. We tried not to move the case around too much because the finish at the bottom of the case is likely to scratch if you shift around too much.

Ready to use the Dremel	Look at the sparks fly. Notice the metallic dust accumulating on the yellow tape. That's all tiny chewed up bits of the case!

All was fine except for the curves. Since the cutting wheel is basically cutting a straight line the curves take extra care to handle. Luckily, any mistakes that were made will be remedied using the automotive molding. Just make sure you don't go too quickly and keep a steady grip on the dremel. Because the cutting wheel is spinning so fast, when it bites down into the metal it suddenly gets a grip and tends to want to "ride" the metal. Cutting a shallow groove at a slow setting works well.

Finished cutting the hole out.	The back side can show you just how rough the cut is. Don't touch it without work gloves on.

Once the cut was finished we could simply punch out the metal. The cutting wheel is about 1/16th of an inch thick so you can clearly tell where you've cut through and where you haven't. Once finished the edges were very very rough and we used a sanding wheel to get rid of the metal bits. Remember to use gloves! One other note, when we finished with the case cut, the cutting wheel was quite worn down. Take a look at the difference between a brand new cutting wheel and the one after the cut.

We switched to a sanding bit to smooth out the edges of the cut.	Before and after cutting

Next: Drilling.