Protect those Hole Saws

[volt]

Use a fender washer between the work surface to be drilled and the Hole Saw. No more bent/broken pilot bits and/or chipped Hole Saw teeth once the pilot bit drills through.

[6pack]

Dont ring a bell??What are you saying? cant picture?

[mdshunk]

I can't picture how the fender washer trick works, either. One thing I've done to protect hole saws is to drill through drywall and plaster in REVERSE. Drywall and plaster is hard on hole saws, and drilling in reverse doesn't wear the teeth down much at all. This keeps the teeth much sharper for when you need to drill through wood and metal.

[volt]

Try drilling through metal with a hole saw sometime. Sometimes applying too much pressure when the pilot bit penetrates the work surface the hole saw will bind, which usually results in damaged pilot bits or chipped hole saw teeth. The fender washer will spin, not allowing the hole saw to bind, thus preventing any damage to the hole saw. Once the pilot bit is through, the fender washer is removed. Then finish drilling the hole.

[mdshunk]

Okay.... I get it now. The fender washer has to be bigger than the hole saw so that when the pilot bit breaks through, the saw teeth hit the spinning fender washer instead of the stationary panel can or j-box or whatever. So I guess this trick only works for the 7/8 and 1-1/16 hole saws and that's about it (unless a fellow has access to 1/4 x 4" fender washers, if such a thing even exists). I still just prefer to use a step drill and slug buster for cutting metal. It seems cheaper to me, versus using expensive hole saws that have a limited lifetime. Sawing holes is undoubtedly faster, though. Thanks for the tip!

[Perion]

The fender washer trick works great. I've done it that way for quite a while after a friend showed me (after he saw me break the stinkin bit :) ).

Perion