Holesaw Question

On Sun, 9 May 2004 11:29:07 -0400, [email protected] (J T)
wrote:

> The small pieces of wood
...............
> use a holesaw to cut different sizes of circles
................
>My questions:
>Is there a faster way of cutting circles, then what I've outlined above?
>And, if there is, what?


there are cleaner ways to do it, and there are ways to do it without
the center drill hole, bt unless you have a *lot* of them to make the
hole saw will probably be your best bet. cutting the scraps up with
the chopsaw or bandsaw and turning them on the lathe is probably the
next bet. I'll guess that once you've gotten the tooling worked out
it'll be about as fast.

Best hint I could offer is, when you cut the wheels, get the hole saw
blade very close to an edge of the board. That gives the saw dust a
place to run/ fall out.

You might buy a small triangular file, those hole saw blades will need
to be sharpened.

If you want to get fancy, it is possible to fashion a "stripper", find
a spring that will fit around your center bit, somehow fix it up
inside the hole saw blade, maybe welded to a washer. Makes it a
little harder to push down when you drill, of course, but in a perfect
world, it would push the new wheel out, you would never have to stop
the drill press.

Or maybe not.... anyway- have fun with it, Joat!


-Dan


On Sun, 9 May 2004 11:29:07 -0400, [email protected] (J T)
wrote:

> The small pieces of wood have gotten to be way too space consuming.
>I've got to get rid of most of them. However, I'm not going to just
>toss them. I'm going to use a holesaw to cut different sizes of circles
>from them first. I can use the circles for various projects. And,
>they'll take up less space, and be easier to store. Some are going to be
>bases for chess pieces.
>
> The really good holesaw I had got munched awhile back. I've
>another that's not quite as good, but OK. And, two more I recently got
>at HF, one goes up to about 5".
>
> I've found the fastest way is to cut halfway thru the wood, flip
>the wood, and go the rest of the way thru. But, then I have to shut off
>the drillpress, pull the circle out of the holesaw, and repeat. Even
>with 1/2" stock, this leaves enough material sticking out so I can just
>use my fingers and pull it out. This leaves a little ridge around the
>circle, which is no biggie, a little sanding takes care of that problem.
>
> By the way, glue and stack about 4 smaller circles, and they make
>neat turn signal, or shift lever, knobs. Did that for my truck. But,
>if I do it again, I think next time I might glue them, then put them in
>the lathe, and sand them smooth while turning.
>
> And, yeah, I know it'd be faster, more cost efficient, and so on,
>to just buy a bunch of wheels. But, it ain't happening.
> Yeah, I've looked, and not found an answer. My questions:
>Is there a faster way of cutting circles, then what I've outlined above?
>And, if there is, what?
>
>
>JOAT
>"106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of
>cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses." - Elwood
>
>"Hit it." - Joliet Jake