Hi all,

I talked to a guy this morning who suggested using a hole saw in a
magnetic drilling machine. I need to cut some round holes between 2" and
3" diameter in 1/4" mild steel plate. The guy said I should be okay
buying a smaller drilling machine with a broach capacity of 32 mm and
using a hole saw to cut larger holes in 1/4" plate, rather than spending
more on a big machine. I assume the saw arbor is held in a Jacob's chuck
adaptor. Does anyone have experience of doing this? Does it work okay?
Thoughts would be appreciated...

Best wishes,

Chris

I have used a 1 1/2" diameter bimetal hole saw in a drill press to cut
hundreds of lightening holes in 1x2x1/16" wall rectangular aluminum
tubing. Makes noise and chips like you wouldn't believe, but it's
faster and cheaper than a fly cutter or just about any other metal.
Another aspect not mentioned above is that as the cutter heats up from
friction it will expand and bind in the hole. It is necessary to keep
the cutter fairly cool to prevent this from happening. I had another
person squirting oil and compressed air on the cutter to remove chips
and help hold the long piece of tubing while I aligned the hole saw for
each hole and ran the drill press. The compressed air helped cool the
tubing and remove chips.

I've cut a few 4" conduit holes in industrial control boxes with a
Starrett hole saw in a large Milwaukee D-handle drill. The holes were
in side walls so chip clearance was no problem. I had to wedge myself
against the opposite wall of the enclosure to get enough force on the
hole saw to make it cut well, and whenever the saw grabbed the handles
were guaranteed to make a quarter revolution while the motor coasted to
a stop, regardless of which part of me was in the way.

jw

....
in side walls so chip clearance was no problem. I had to wedge myself
against the opposite wall of the enclosure to get enough force on the
hole saw to make it cut well, and whenever the saw grabbed the handles
were guaranteed to make a quarter revolution while the motor coasted to
a stop, regardless of which part of me was in the way.


LOL, Been there, Done that.

Karl