Quicker Hole Sawing

Family Handyman

If you’ve ever had to drill holes through joists over your head, you know it’s grueling. So I decided to try this tip from Gus Dube. He suggests rubbing wax on hole saws to make them cut faster with less burning. I drilled two holes, one with and one without wax, and timed each method. Then I tried another tip we ran awhile back: drilling 3/4-in. holes just inside the circle to act as ports to let the sawdust escape so it wouldn’t clog the teeth and overheat the hole saw. Finally, I drilled holes using both the ports and the wax. Here are the results: Plain old hole: 55 seconds With sawdust ports: 23 seconds With wax: 58 seconds With sawdust ports and wax: 22 seconds So, sorry, Gus, the wax just seems to gum things up. The ports are the key. And yeah, I know, it takes time to drill ports. But that’s time you won’t spend muscling a hole saw through a joist over your head. Score the hole first so you can place the ports right at the perimeter. — Travis Larson