From https://www.kevincaron.com – Artist Kevin Caron shows how to make perfect holes of various sizes in metal and wood ….
In response to a question about how he cut the holes in the steel wings of a private art commission without any discoloration or roughness, Kevin shows how to use a hole saw. First he shows the attachment that has a pilot drill to help get your hole started. The attachment has a locking mechanism with pins that lock into the holes in the back of the hole saw to keep everything together. You screw the locking mechanism into the hole saw, line up the holes and screw it down so everything locks together. The hole saw has a bimetal cutting surface that dissipates heat well while staying sharp. Hole saws come in lots of different sizes, too. Caron shows some of the ones he has, from 1/2″ to 7/8″ to 3″ to 4″. You can buy them as a set, but the sets he’s seen only go from about 1/2″ to 3/4″ or require a big case to store them all in – hole saws come as large as 6″, 7′, 8″ and 10″. The smaller diameter hole saws can be used in a handheld drill or a drill press, but the bigger ones perform better in a drill press because they can pull the metal or wood loose. With hole saws larger than 1-1/2″ Caron uses a drill press, clamping down the material on the drill press table. You can also buy hole saws individually. All of his came from Home Depot. Caron has had good luck with the Milwaukee brand. There are also hole saws made of different types of metal and adjustable ones. He recommends going online and researching “hole saws” to see what is available. As for using them to create a project, he laid out his bottom row along the straight edge, then measured in and across. Then he cut some 4″ diameter circles out of paper and laid them on the metal so he could get his spacing right. Next he took his spring-loaded center punch and punched right in the center of the paper pattern. Caron takes a moment to explain how the spring-loaded center punch works. You put it up against the metal and press down. You hear a little “snap,” which is the spring releasing a small hammer inside, which makes a dimple in the metal. You can come back with a traditional center punch and a hammer if you want to create a bigger mark, but using this spring-loaded center punch seems to do the job well enough for the hole saw’s pilot drill to find the center point. (Sometimes he does it twice to deepen the dimple.) Finally, he demonstrates how to do it. He puts a hole saw on his drill press, center punches a piece of aluminum, clamps the metal to the table, and drills a pilot hole through the aluminum. He then lowers the hole saw and cuts right through the metal. Aluminum cuts more easily than steel; he uses cutting fluid when using a hole saw on steel. When he drilled the wings for his art commission, he clamped a large piece of wood to the drill press table, then clamped the metal to the wood to keep everything straight, and went a little more slowly. Caron has cut 1/4″ and even 1/2″ steel using the drill press and a hole saw. For more how-to videos, visit https://www.kevincaron.com To see the art commission mentioned in this video, visit https://www.kevincaron.com/art_detail/lady_bugme.html
This Toyota Land Cruiser cast aluminum intake manifold had a 3 inch cut across it. Super Alloy 5 is ideal for fixing cast aluminum, so we used an oxyacetylene torch to make the repair.
We recommend using oxy-acetylene on all thicker aluminum because it can sometimes be difficult to keep the base metal at the correct temperature with propane or MAPP gas.
Please read all instructions prior to use at: https://www.muggyweld.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Super-Alloy-5-instructions.pdf
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