Pocket Laser Vortex of DOOOOM

Step 4 Drilling the Box

Drill a small pilot hole in one of the short sides of the box, 1" (25mm) from one edge. This is the hole that the plastic tube will go through, so if you haven't got a large enough drill, make it as large as you can.

Ideally you'd use a step drill - My set will drill a neat hole from 4mm to 30mm in 2mm steps.
Because not everybody has one of these, I enlarged the hole using a brute-force method by twisting my wire cutters into the hole. Some may cry 'tool abuse!' but as it's reasonably soft plastic, the cutters didn't suffer in the least. Any solid, sharp edged tool with a sloping profile would do the job. I tidied up things with a round file so the plastic tube was a good fit through the hole. It will be glued in place later.

Place the tube and the motor into the box and work out the position of the side hole where the Vortex will emerge. The motor should be at 45 degrees to the axis of the tube to reflect the beam out. Make a second hole here, as large as you safely can without weakening the top of the box side.

Drill and file a smaller third hole on the short side with the tube entry to pass the slider of the switch through.