and this made the job much easier. I found you need to get down to about 3/16" thickness for most connectors, including RCA and BNC jacks. My friend who is a wood hobbyist was amazed at how hard this African Mahogany is, and ultimately I think this helped us get tight connections. Of course they make connectors that allow for thicker chassis. We forgot to drill the countersink hole on the front fascia for the on/off rotary switch prior to assembling the chassis and hence could not use the drill press. This was the most difficult, and the bit skipped on us creating an eliptical impression in the wood; hence the oversized ebony knob (1.5" diam) to hide the mistake. After this experience, I would never attempt to countersink without the drill press. Of course one could hollow out the rear panel for portion/most of its area, and install a 1/8" metal to the inside and use this to mount connectors.