OT - Any Woodworking Guys Here?

With a properly controlled cut, it would work fine...don't YOU think?

I think that the guys with the hand drills in their photos might be "peck drilling" to allow the hand drill to get back up to speed and/or allow enertia to do some of the work for them. My machine peck drills, but if you stall a 3 phase motor, you've (eventually if not immediately) got problems.

This would be actually more like a trepanning operation. The local library has a book on trepanning with some formulas to calculate how much power is needed for a given diameter and cutter width. A lot depends on type of material and depth to cut. Thin foam board would probably not be a biggie, 2" thick oak 12 " in diameter might be. If you could get one of the saws and a sample of the material they want to drill out, you could use a clamp-on ammeter to figure how much power you need, too.

Stan

I don't see why not - especially for cutting things like chip board.

I have a similar tool for making up to 4" holes in ceramic tile - works fine.

Watch your wrists ;-)

I didn't see Joe's original post , so I'm piggybacking . My opinion , that thing is gonna break somebody's wrist . In a drill press , it might do OK , but I wouldn't expect a very fast cut with a blade sector that short . To make big cuts fast requires horsepower , period . (I'm a cabinet maker during the day ...

Joe

One thing you have to remember is there are 3 toothed legs on that circle, each of which covers ~5% of the circumference, so as long as you keep it flat, it's got pretty good support. The multiple teeth will all chew out the wood and everything is fine. The center drill is going to help a lot to keep it oriented and level. I've got an old Skil variable size hole saw that uses the same 3 saw legs with center drill principle and have used it quite successfully.

If you cant it, all hell is going to break loose. One saw is going to lift up, one is going to bind and you're in trouble. I'd only consider using it for what they show, putting big holes in thin strand board and maybe drywall. Even then, I'd be very careful and make sure I had good footing.

Jim

All depends on speed and feed, just like metal. It looks like the three tooth and round balance design gets rid of the big bugaboo with using a single-point fly cutter by hand, in where you get it cocked slightly it snags, and either stalls the drill motor or bucks and breaks away from the operator.

If this rig they want you to build is a jigged and clamped drill press type environment it should work fine, just make sure there's a way to control feed pressure and a nice fast electronic overload on the motor. You know how the "Magic Smoke" likes to escape if they stay stalled for too long.

Oh, and remember to account for chip clearance somehow, either an air blast or do the drilling horizontally so the sawdust falls free, or both (Belt and Suspenders). Big PITA with hole saws when the teeth get packed and you have to stop and clear out the slot.

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