After a mock-up with a couple of sheets of A4 I decided that 10x12 inches was an appropriate size. I had some steel sheet that a mate found dumped outside his house ages ago (I knew it would come in handy one day). the sheet was just over 2mm which meant it was too thick for my air nibbler so I tried using my jigsaw. That didn't work too well so I used my air cut off tool to grind a groove along the cut line using the jigsaw to finish the job. Here's my first cut, they got better after that.
The edges weren't perfect by a long chalk but some work with a file sorted them out.
With the rectangle cut out I used my new height gauge to mark a line parallel to the datum (ie the edge I hadn't cut... the straight one).
I then used a hole saw to cut a couple of rather large holes, my pillar drill is a technically too fast for this sort of work but it's all I've got and so I made do with minimum speed and lots of cutting oil.
A bit more grinding with the cut off tool (no need for the jig saw this time) followed with some cleaning up and corner rounding with hand and air files gave me my basic number board shape.
Plan is to fill the hole with some stainless steel mesh, paint the whole lot and then add some numbers.
Haven't decided how to attach the mesh yet. In the picture above I used a pair of mole grips out of camera but I want a more elegant solution.
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