cabide tipped or HSS holesaw in steel by hand

Bill D · Apr 25, 2020

I need to drill a few 1+3/8 holes in 3mm iron plate machine bases. This will be done with a hand drill. I see HSS and carbide toothed holesaws for sale. Doing this by hand I would guess the carbide may chip or snap off. Does carbide have any real advantage here? It may last longer but With fewer teeth the cuts will probably take longer. I do not have a magnetic drill to add rigidity. The only local carbide holesaws are carbide grit for stone not steel cutting so I would have to order a carbide tooted holesaw and wait.
At this size is there much difference between a annular cutter and a holesaw? I have no idea if a regular chucked hand drill can run a annular cutter anyway or if a magnetic drill uses some special chuck to drive them.
Bill D

Gordon Heaton · Apr 25, 2020

You can use an annular cutter if you make or buy an adapter to straight-shank 1/2". Hole saws are difficult at best, and in a hand drill extremely so. I've done that size (annular cutter with pilot shaft) with a Milwaukee battery powered 1/2" drill, using a home-made adapter. I drilled two holes through the web of a 6" I-beam in an awkward position without too much trouble.

Someone somewhere clued me in to an import hydraulic hand-punch at HF for $99. I don't buy tools or machinery there, but for the price I couldn't resist. It is well made and punched out .125 hot-rolled no problem. I think there is a punch/die close to what you need. All it requires is a 3/4" starter hole. Might give it a thought.

The short version: If I were you I'd use an annular cutter.

Superbowl · Apr 25, 2020

I have done holes about that size in1/4" steel plate with a HHS hole saw. Just go slow and use a lot of oil. Drill a little and let the hole saw cool. Once you over heat it, it is trash. I also have made an arbor for using an annular cutter in a drill chuck that is like a hole saw arbor with it's drill bit center. I put in three set screws, one for each side of the annular cutter and one for the drill bit. Because I did not have any large diameter steel stock on hand I turned down a trailer hitch ball which is about the right rough size.

climb-101 · Apr 25, 2020

if you really need that size of a hole, chances are that you should use 1 size smaller bit with as much as the wobble around.

Spruewell · Apr 25, 2020

a carbide tipped hole saw will not survive on a hand drill. You can not hold it rigidly enough or feed it consistently enough. It will chatter, then shatter. The high speed steel tools will be much more forgiving.

thermite · Apr 25, 2020

Bill D said:
I need to drill a few 1+3/8 holes in 3mm iron plate machine bases. This will be done with a hand drill. I see HSS and carbide toothed holesaws for sale. Doing this by hand I would guess the carbide may chip or snap off. Does carbide have any real advantage here? It may last longer but With fewer teeth the cuts will probably take longer. I do not have a magnetic drill to add rigidity. The only local carbide holesaws are carbide grit for stone not steel cutting so I would have to order a carbide tooted holesaw and wait.
At this size is there much difference between a annular cutter and a holesaw? I have no idea if a regular chucked hand drill can run a annular cutter anyway or if a magnetic drill uses some special chuck to drive them.
Bill D

5 mm and under material is "risky bizness" by hand.

You need to rent a mag base or fab yerself a guide rail & cage you can fasten "somehow" so as to manage the torque and prevent tilt. Store-bought goods exist for some of the more popular drill motors. I'd also use corded, not cordless.

Best Drill Guides 2020 - Reviews & Buyer's Guide

CAVEAT: Those are bare minimum, and BARELY adequate. As a Machinashitist, YOU should be able to fab BETTER .. or at least MODIFY to advantageous effect!

T'other thing is to clamp-on a "drill bushing", even if it is only wood.
Reduces risk of the cutter going walkabout.

Same again, "breakout" side.
Sacrificial material up TIGHT such as polywood, hardwood, or shiney-wood so you get a clean exit w/o grabbing.

Get THOSE parts right, most any cutter will work in material that thin.
Carbides just last for more holes per-each.

Some of mine, costly devils, only ever made three holes.

Custom stainless sink decks, the sinks costing upwards of a thousand bucks a pop making that worthwhile to "just not" f**k-up.

2CW

cyanidekid · Apr 26, 2020

hoy crap, what's the big deal? only 1 3/8" ? through only 3mm? what exactly is the difficulty in that?

custom anular cutter arbor? for that? :nutter:

if for a machine base, I'll bet tolerance isn't an issue. just use a Lenox Rigid Milwaukee or whoever bi-metal hole saw, and of corse go slow and use lube. done in 2 min. no problem whatsoever.

metalpyro · Apr 26, 2020

Hougen makes a Holecutter with an 1/8" DOC
The individual cutters aren't terribly expensive, you'll have to buy the arbor and pilot drill.

Hougen Holcutters for Holes in Sheet Metal

thermite · Apr 26, 2020

metalpyro said:
Hougen makes a Holecutter with an 1/8" DOC
The individual cutters aren't terribly expensive, you'll have to buy the arbor and pilot drill.

Hougen Holcutters for Holes in Sheet Metal

Hem's sake 1/8" DOC?

Got helical twist drills here clear up to about 3" some others 30" long. But those are NFG for anything much thinner than half (at least!) of their own diameter.

When I went to "invest" in my Hougen and Milwaukee annulars I went for 1" and 2" depth capables- nothing less.

Not cheap in ANY depth, but at least for the extra bucks the deep ones can do pretty much anything as comes along, sheet metal to heavy solids.

Someone mentioned Lennox (quite decent), as are Milwaukee-branded holesaws. I also have "Blu-Mol" as work pretty much as good.

No experience (yet) with Rigid (Chinese), but I'm happy with several of their cheap power tools as reasonable value-for-money, so may give 'em a shot, next go.

One of those curses of acccident that the past 30 years I've actually NEEDED holesaws and annulars VERY often.

JF deal with that. Learn to use them well. Life gets easier.

Stabilized drill motor, drill PRESS better-yet, helps with that.

Freehanding sucks. Even if you are muscled like Godzilla.

I am not so blessed. I just THINK like a giant lizard.. ponderous slow.. and lazy!

LKeithR · Apr 26, 2020

cyanidekid said:
hoy crap, what's the big deal? only 1 3/8" ? through only 3mm? what exactly is the difficulty in that?

custom anular cutter arbor? for that? if for a machine base, I'll bet tolerance isn't an issue. just use a Lenox Rigid Milwaukee or whoever bi-metal hole saw, and of corse go slow and use lube. done in 2 min. no problem whatsoever.

My thoughts exactly. Just grab a regular hole saw, stuff it in a 1/2" drill and cut your holes. No big deal.
Don't be afraid to use lots of lube. I've cut 2" holes in 3/4" plate the same way. Took a bit of time but it
was quite doable...

Tyrone Shoelaces · Apr 26, 2020

In the old days for lubrication we used to pack hole saws out with tallow.
As the saw got warm/hot the tallow would melt a little bit at a time and run down into the cutting area. Old school method but it worked and it left you with both hands free to concentrate on holding the drill steady.

Regards Tyrone

thermite · Apr 26, 2020

Tyrone Shoelaces said:
In the old days for lubrication we used to pack hole saws out with tallow.
As the saw got warm/hot the tallow would melt a little bit at a time and run down into the cutting area. Old school method but it worked and it left you with both hands free to concentrate on holding the drill steady.

Regards Tyrone

Showin' our age, Ty. Usta bee yah could "just buy" tallow sticks from yer reg'lar mill supply, tear-off brown paper wrap. Herr Pelz touted 'em as the preferred means of freeing rusting exhaust manifold bolts - applied hot - War One era.

Last one I laid eyes on - THIS side of the pond - must have been 1963, I was still young, the tallow stick not so much.

Blighty being more conservative as to not tossing stuff that JF works out with the bathwater, I should look and see if they are still stocked?

On-edit.. Just did that. Wuddn' yah know it? Polishing industry suppliers still traffic in tallow and mixtures-of.

Meanwhile.. where yah have-not? Wotever NON fibered, NON moly/graphited AKA "clear" grease yah have handy does much the same job for metals.

Soap, glycerine, or paraffin wax for holes in woods.

DMF_TomB · Apr 26, 2020

regular carbide hole saws are for abrasive fiberglass composite plastics. in my experience when used on steel tool life is 100x shorter than hss. usually teeth chip in seconds.
.
there are heavy duty carbide tipped holes saws made for steel with big thick carbide teeth and thick walled hole saw and very short cutting depth ability but these require rigid setups, in a hand drill tool life would be shorter

Tyrone Shoelaces · Apr 26, 2020

thermite said:
Showin' our age, Ty. Usta bee yah could "just buy" tallow sticks from yer reg'lar mill supply, tear-off brown paper wrap. Herr Pelz touted 'em as the preferred means of freeing rusting exhaust manifold bolts - applied hot - War One era.

Last one I laid eyes on - THIS side of the pond - must have been 1963, I was still young, the tallow stick not so much.

Blighty being more conservative as to not tossing stuff that JF works out with the bathwater, I should look and see if they are still stocked?

On-edit.. Just did that. Wuddn' yah know it? Polishing industry suppliers still traffic in tallow and mixtures-of.

Meanwhile.. where yah have-not? Wotever NON fibered, NON moly/graphited AKA "clear" grease yah have handy does much the same job for metals.

Soap, glycerine, or paraffin wax for holes in woods.

Yes, these were for metal cutting only. I wouldn't want to use tallow on wood.

Regards Tyrone.

wheels17 · Apr 26, 2020

When you are cutting by hand with a hole saw, there are a few tricks that I have found makes the job go much better.

Use a drill the same diameter as the pilot drill on the hole saw to locate the center of the hole. Replace the drill on the hole saw with a solid round of the same diameter. This greatly improves the guiding and rigidity of the setup. Spin the hole saw enough to make a mark on the material. Then drill a couple of 1/4 inch holes inside the marked circle with the holes intersecting the saw kerf. This allows chips to clear and reduces the tendency of the chips to pack and jam the saw. And plenty of oil.

Murf · Apr 26, 2020

Murf

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

DMF_TomB · Apr 26, 2020

when hole sawing into structural steel with hand held drill I always found its best to slowly wobble drill handle in a small circle pattern so hole saw is slightly tilted in circular pattern. hole diameter is slightly bigger allowing chips to come out of hole easier. less rubbing and heat buildup too. plus metal slug usually drops out of hole saw instead of tight and stuck in hole saw
.
steel 1/8 to 1/2" thick usually get close to 100 holes per hole saw using the slight slow circular wobble technique. old timer showed me back in my apprenticeship days like 40 years ago. usually like 100 holes wobbling or <10 holes not wobbling holding drill motor. if I use anything its usually a thin oil or thin oil/tapping fluid mix mostly just to give a ideal how hot saw is by the smoke/mist. usually chips coming out is biggest problem sometimes compressed air helps blow chips out of hole too. or periodically stop, pull saw out, blow chips out, continue drilling
.
in a drill press, having some runout is actually helpful as slightly bigger hole chips come out easier especially with some compressed air

crossthread · Apr 26, 2020

Talk about showing your age!! I too used to use tallow for various cutting projects. The last time I needed some was for exactly what was described earlier. I wanted to pack the hole saw with tallow but couldn't find any of the tallow in stick form. I ended up using (wait for it) suet cakes from Tractor Supply. Just jam the hole saw through the cake and you are done. You can get it without seeds if that makes any difference, but it melts as the hole saw warms and does a great job.

DMF_TomB · Apr 26, 2020

i never used tallow but I have used electricians wire pulling lubricant for tapping overhead.
.
its a wax like paste squeezes out like ketchup or tooth paste tends to not drip as easily or fast. fairly common and relatively easy to get, usually doesnt smell or go bad, its made to not effect wire plastic insulation. i have used to tap threads in plastic parts before
.
i believe its wax based

Bill D · Apr 26, 2020

How does Crisco compare to tallow? Maybe bees wax has a similar use it is sold for saw lube.
Bil lD

cabide tipped or HSS holesaw in steel by hand

Diamond

Titanium

Hot Rolled

Cast Iron

Hot Rolled

Diamond

Titanium

Aluminum

Diamond

Stainless

Diamond

Diamond

Diamond

Attachments

Diamond

Stainless

Hot Rolled

Diamond

Titanium

Diamond

Diamond

Similar threads