Sunday, January 24, 2010

Winter Doldrums

Snow, sub-zero temperatures, and flu virus.

Nothing to report.

I will leave this little trick I just learned and tried out from The Family Handyman magazine.

When drilling large holes for seacocks and such:

Start the hole to outline the cut. Then drill a few small holes along the perimeter. Then go back and cut the primarly hole.



The smaller holes give a place for the chips to exit which frees up the cutting teeth and reduces the heat buildup. Doing a hole this way takes less than half the time for simply boring the large hole. One could say 'but drilling the extra holes takes even longer' -which is true- but it drastically reduces the heat and keeps your hole saw teeth sharp for much longer. You don't have to buy a new hole saw every three or four cuts which seems to be my practice when drilling into thick fiberglass hulls.

Note: I only tried this on wood, not fiberglass but I am assuming it works the same.

In any case, its a free advice and you get what you paid for it.

Plus, nothing you read on the Internet is actually true...

The cherry paneling is still in my basement. I have been ordering a few small bits of tools and supplies as my budget allows. I shovel, sniffle and wait for an opportunity to spend some quality time on the boat.

And that's it for now.

2 comments:

Tim said...

Do the extra holes make it any easier to remove the plug from the hole saw when the cut is complete?

Anonymous said...

Thanks, I never would have thought of that. Those stuck plugs that Tim mentions is one reason I've replaced my hole cutting bits- it takes longer to remove them than a dull bit is worth.
David