Drill for 60mm holes through deck ?

Buy the cheapest 240 volt drill you find and the cheapest hole saws for metal you can find on Ebay. They will do the job perfectly and at minimal cost. Even the crappiest metal cutting hole-saw will fly through GRP.
 
If you use a holecutter start slow with reversing, when you are through the gelcoat
you can go clockwise. So chance off chips is minimal.

Or drill a 8mm hole and cut out with jigsaw (If there is room for full cirkel with jigsaw).
With jigsaw more chance of chipping the gelcoat.
 
I do this on a regular basis (bulkheads, not decks), steel, ali and GRP, over time I have found the best hole cutter for GRP is one intended for tiles, they do not chip the gelcoat or cause breakout on the other side is used carefully and snatch a lot less than toothed ones. As for a drill, as my Pro stuff is only max 10mm cuck I use my Ryobi 18v 13mm in low gear to take the arbour and it will cut loads of holes in GRP or wood before recharge and stands up to the job wel., In fact its about all I use it for now, make sure you use a steadying handle on the drill as if holesaws "bind" they can hurt your wrist a bit.
 
I had to cut a 90mm hole in GRP, which was solid layup about 12mm thick at one side of the hole and 8mm at the other, in order to fit an instrument. I used one of the holesaws from a cheap set from Lidl or Aldi (I forget which) in a £9.99 mains drill from B&Q. It did the job very easily. A first attempt using a battery drill was not successful because the battery has nearly died, but may have worked if the battery had been OK..
 
single said:
Best for grp- http://www.amazon.co.uk/60mm-Drill-...qid=1365929556&sr=1-18&keywords=60mm+hole+saw

and the cheap B&Q 230v drill has good reviews for £15.
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Problem with those is the lack of pilot / centering bit, OK for drilling tiles on a pillar drill where one can clamp and steady but for hand drilling you really need one that fits in an arbour with pilot or risk it "walking" all over the place. The cutting face is ideal but keeping it steady until it bit would be a bit of a worry.
 
David2452 said:
Problem with those is the lack of pilot / centering bit, OK for drilling tiles on a pillar drill where one can clamp and steady but for hand drilling you really need one that fits in an arbour with pilot or risk it "walking" all over the place. The cutting face is ideal but keeping it steady until it bit would be a bit of a worry.
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True, sorry didn't notice it was missing the pilot.Just example.
 
oldbilbo said:
I recall Aldi currently selling packs of assorted 'hole cutters' to fit your chosen power drill. These are certainly good enough for the job and much cheaper than many other trade sources.
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Do you have shares in Aldi mate? You're always givin em free publicity. There kit is cheap sometimes but often not. Sometimes ok, often not. Give it rest will ya
 
PCUK said:
David, Probably in danger of telling you how to suck eggs here! But you probably know you can get an adapter for the small arbours that fit 10mm chucks to allow them to take all the larger size saws.
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Indeed, and I have one, but I'm not subjecting my poor little 10mm drills to use with hole saws, poor delicate little chaps.
 
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