Making large[ish] holes in steel - occasionally - how?

tinnews · 2007-09-19T20:13:46+00:00

What do others here do when they want to make a big[gish] hole in alump of steel?I drill lots of holes in the 2 to 6 mm range, dead easy.I drill some holes in the 6 to 10 mm range, fairly easy though I coulddo with a slower drill.Then I'm stuck really. OK, up to 12mm 0.5" I can drill a 10mm holeand then make it bigger by various dodgy means but above that I'm adefinitely stuck.Recently it would have been very convenient to have been able to makesome 20mm (or thereabouts) holes in some angle but I really couldn'tthink of a reasonable way to do it.None of my drills (corded or cordless) has a chuck which goes beyond12mm or so and anyway they're too fast. I don't think your standard'hole saws' (those circular hacksaw things) would get very far insteel, they're what I use on wood, plasterboard, etc. when I want bigholes.So are there any reasonably cheap tools for making the occasionallarge hole in steel? It doesn't have to be fast, taking severalminutes on one hole doesn't really matter.