Adjustable hole cutter

eg:

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I recall these being described as pants here in the past but I have a couple of large (130 odd mm) holes to make in the back of some thin backed self assembly wardrobes and they could save time and mess over a jigsaw.

I'd probably use it with a battery powered drill driver on slow speed but could probably locate a brace and bit style tool if that would be better.

Any opinions?

Reply to
fred
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I have one, its OK but it can be hard to keep level. I only did 50-70 mm holes with it, I would use a pillar drill if possible.

Reply to
dennis

Not sure about that one. I have an Armeg one which I'm generally impressed with. The Toolstation one doesn't look nearly as well made but, since it's cheap and you only want to cut hardboard, it might be worth a punt.

I found mine works best in a big SDS drill running moderately fast. That way it doesn't tend to catch so much. You still need strong arms though. Approach the work very slowly and watch where the score mark starts to appear so you can adjust the angle to get it perfectly perpendicular.

Don't get carried away with it. I did, and this happened to my lounge ceiling.

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Cheers,

Colin.

Reply to
Colin Stamp

Eek ... that's some mouse infestation there

Reply to
geoff

Looking at it setup of the two cutting points might be fun to get them both cutting at the same radius. Might not be that critical, just a small flag being waved. B-)

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

In article , fred writes

Thanks to all, reservations noted, I will prob give it a punt and report back on the results.

Particular thanks to Colin for the view of his Whack-a-mole[1] game :-)

[1] Beaver?
Reply to
fred

flycutters work, but due to the inherent unbalance of the things should always be run at low RPM.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

The one linked to is symmetrical so shouldn't be unbalanced when rotating in free air. Once it starts cutting though keeping it square so each cutter takes the same amount is going to be the hard bit. I think reasonable RPM will be needed but very little push.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

"can be set up infinitely carefully to be *almost* symmetrical"

You are talking to a model aircraft man here, and we all know here how to balance a propellor by carefully sanding off a few microns here and there. Or how much difference an uneven coat of paint makes.

120 RPM max for that beast,

Less on a big cut

I have both made, and used these things on pillar drills.. if you want a clean cut keep the cutter speed slow.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

I used one recently to cut a series of hardboard discs (don't ask!) and found that setting the blades slightly apart, so that one cutter was cleaning out the slot behind the other cutter, worked best for me.

Nick

Reply to
Nick Odell

PS Definitely loads easier in a pillar drill.

Nick

Reply to
Nick Odell

A low speed might work well in a pillar drill but if you have to use it hand-held as I did for my ceiling holes, then too slow-a-speed just makes for copious amounts of comedy snagging, arm wrenching, step ladder wobbling and swearing. Higher speeds cut that down *massively*.

After experimenting, I ended up using a big, Chinese, mains SDS drill set to around two-thirds full speed. Most of the holes were relatively painless then...

Cheers,

Colin.

Reply to
Colin Stamp

I did wonder where all the cheese kept going :o)

Cheers,

Colin.

Reply to
Colin Stamp

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