I recommend that you buy a pin vise... visualize a handle about the size of the bottom half of a ballpoint pen. At the tip (where the ballpoint would be) there is a small chuck that takes very small drill bits (some so small that you have to look carefully to see the twists in the drill bits). My pin vise (which I bought for USD $12 at Radio Shack, sadly no longer in the catalog) came with a selection of small bits tucked into the handle).
To use this beauty, you chuck up a small bit, place the bit where you want to put a hole (precicely where you want it, no need for a center punch) and twist the drill manually. In 30 seconds for aluminum (maybe 45-60 for steel), you will have a nice starter hole (not all the way through the metal of course, no need for that)... then you go get your hand drill and drill either your "real" hole or--if that hole will be large--you can drill a 1-2mm pilot hole all the way through, then your "real" hole. This allows very precice location of holes (much better than a center punch... when I get a center punch into place sometimes it's hard to see the mark you made to locate the hole and this leads to uncertainty in the hole location... this is no problem with a pin vise since the tiny drill bit cannot obscure your view).
A pin vise is also the perfect tool to enlarge mounting holes in PCBs (or to get a little solder out of a hole). Recently, I've been putting a lot of Black Gates into my AKSA, and some BGs won't fit in the stock PCB mounting holes. When you enlarge the holes with a pin vise, you have absolute control of the process.
The only problem is that these can sometimes be hard to find. If you know a good machinist, he can probably help you locate one.
Peter
