drilling holes

B

bass4040

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 24, 2004
Messages
143
I saw a circle drill bit $12 at home depot I'm thinking about buying. Is it easy to drill a 4" inch hole in an aluminum case?
 
those things rock, cutting the thicker stuff it gets hot though, I cool my blade with wd-40, then clean everything good after with alchohol,

why are you cutting such a small hole?
 
For my new Shuttle, two on the sides and one on top. Maybe 5" bit, the large ones cost $25 and that's a lot if I only use it a few times.
 
If you have a Harbor Freight in your area I'd suggest checking there before buying from Home Depot. I was able to get a 10 piece hole saw set for half of what Home Depot wanted for a single saw.
 
Harbor Freight is a good place to get a decent quality hole saw. Not sure if they sell the bi-metalic saws or not.

If you're going to be doing more than a few holes, buy a quality bi-metalic hole saw. They cut faster, and will last a LOT longer than the other (cheaper) style, which will start dulling out after just a few holes in steel (thru aluminum it's significantly longer, but still not as good as you'll get with the bi-metallic style).

I consider buying quality tools as an investment, especially as I've gone through too many cheap tools over the years. That's why I've got the bi-m hole saws in 60 & 80mm sizes. Thru 1mm aluminum, with my cordless drill-driver, that 60mm saw will cut thru in about 3 seconds!! :eek: :D
 
tjwilco said:
If you have a Harbor Freight in your area I'd suggest checking there before buying from Home Depot. I was able to get a 10 piece hole saw set for half of what Home Depot wanted for a single saw.
Click to expand...


EXACTLY WHAT HE SAID.
 
Nivram said:
Harbor Freight is a good place to get a decent quality hole saw. Not sure if they sell the bi-metalic saws or not.

If you're going to be doing more than a few holes, buy a quality bi-metalic hole saw. They cut faster, and will last a LOT longer than the other (cheaper) style, which will start dulling out after just a few holes in steel (thru aluminum it's significantly longer, but still not as good as you'll get with the bi-metallic style).

I consider buying quality tools as an investment, especially as I've gone through too many cheap tools over the years. That's why I've got the bi-m hole saws in 60 & 80mm sizes. Thru 1mm aluminum, with my cordless drill-driver, that 60mm saw will cut thru in about 3 seconds!! :eek: :D
Click to expand...


Locally, harbor freight has their cheap hole saw sets for $3 (not all the time.......but at least a dozen times a year). Might as well buy like 5 sets so even if they do wear out, you can use another :p Buying more expensive bimetal ones for simple case crap is like throwing away money.

If you buy online, they're about $13 so just wait till they go on sale locally.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=36222
 
tjwilco said:
If you have a Harbor Freight in your area I'd suggest checking there before buying from Home Depot. I was able to get a 10 piece hole saw set for half of what Home Depot wanted for a single saw.
Click to expand...

Every tool ive ever bought at harbor freight has absolutely sucked. I bought a pair of pliers and they werent heat treated!!! The teeth on it actually stripped with one use. I bought a planer and the sprocket was basically a bicycle sprocket and the axle wasn't heat treated so i ended up with a bent axle and a sprocket with 4 missing teeth. So while i agree that if you're only going to use it once, go there but if you have any possible plans to use it in the future for some other project, or would just like to have one around just in case, I would say that the extra 9 dollars is worth it for the bi-metallic blade.
 
Good hole saw blades are well worth the money. Bent teeth only make crappier holes. And no sense spending money on something you are going to throw away. That, by definition, is throwing money away. A good bimetal saw blade will make more and better cuts. If you just want one hole, well you can waste your money, but there will come a time you want another hole in something and having a nice tool ready to go is worth the money spent... To each their own...
 
they seem to be right...different metals mean different durability. the logic that a saw is a saw is a saw, doesnt work with stuff like this...think about it..why would something be more expensive that the other of same purpose...maybe its because it was built differently..maybe the corporate execs wanted a better jet by next christmas...but i tend to go with the former when concerning things such as metal and other fundamental equipment..u get whatcha pay for
 
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