Cheap-Ass Tools: Beaver Saw Drill
By Benjamen Johnson
Who needs a Rotozip, when your cordless drill will work just as well? Grizzly’s Beaver saw-drill can cut a starting hole with its tip and rip through material with its tooth-covered shank. Chuck this bit up into any drill with a 1/4″ chuck or larger, and you’re ready to cut drywall, paneling, and a slew of other materials
For drilling the initial pilot hole, the first 5/8″ of the Beaver saw-drill’s tip resembles a common, 135°, split-point drill bit. The saw portion — with 90 sharp, side-cutting teeth — makes up the next 1-3/4″. For faster cutting and longer life, both the drilling and cutting portions are precision-ground and coated with titanium nitride. Grizzly makes the entire bit from M2 high-speed steel.
Made in USA, the Beaver saw drill will only run you $4 at Amazon — a heck of a lot cheaper than a Rotozip, and one less power tool to lug around.
Beaver Saw-Drill [Grizzly]
Via Amazon
March 19th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Anyone used a Rotozip bit in a drill? Any reason why you couldn’t?
March 19th, 2008 at 10:36 am
I thought about Rotozip bits when I was posting this. I’ve used them in dremels with varying success, but I think maybe the issue would be the 1/8″ diameter. Rotozip bits might need to spin faster than a normal drill spins. The 1/4″ beaver saw drill is designed to spin at a slower speed for drills plus it has teeth vs. a cutting edge.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Black and Decker made these Beaver type bits at least 15 years ago… I still have one somewhere. Almost the exact same design, your typical split drill bit head and a shank with a ton of sharp square bodied teeth on it.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Stanley made one too - their #186
Woodworker’s Supply sells a set:
http://woodworker.com/cgi-bin/FULLPRES.exe?PARTNUM=948-873&search=Drill%20Saw
Drywall routers are more versatile.
We still have a pre-Bosch-Takeover Roto Zip that still works.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
It’s not entirely a great idea to use rotozip type bits in a drill due to the chuck design. The jaws are meant to hold drill bits as perpendicular as possible, and can support large loads along the axial direction of a drill bit. Think about it, would you want to put a 1/4″ router bit into a drill? I didn’t think so.
I suppose one could use a cheap drill to avoid wearing out or damaging the chuck of a good drill, but then again, cheap drill = cheap chuck.
March 19th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Lowe’s has been getting rid of these at their stores, on clearance for around $1.
March 20th, 2008 at 3:59 am
hmmmm… cant wait until somone uses this to remove old drywall and cuts right into some onld wire….
March 20th, 2008 at 6:59 am
For an alternative that you can use in a router, there is the pilot panel bit.
www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-48-23-6041-4-Inch-Router-Double/dp/B000CSSF7U/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1206017834&sr=8-14
Works great for cutting out window openings in sheathing.
March 20th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Re PutnamEco
Good idea for sheathing.
We use pilot panel bits (looked in our stock and ours are Dewalt DW6458) - but these are used in a 1/2 inch plunge router. They do make nice clean cuts - but the Roto-Zips are a bit easier to handle up on the wall and do a decent job on both wood and drywall if you pick the right bit. I never tried a pilot panel bit on drywall - but I’d worry about the innards of one of our plunge routers getting clogged with drywall dust.
March 20th, 2008 at 11:44 am
“hmmmm… cant wait until somone uses this to remove old drywall and cuts right into some onld wire….”
This is a problem no matter what tool you’re using to cut into drywall. It’s a good idea to sweep the area with an AC sensor if you’re unsure what’s behind the wall.
March 20th, 2008 at 11:46 am
“Anyone used a Rotozip bit in a drill? Any reason why you couldn’t?”
Never tried it, but the “pitch” of the rotozip cutting edge is much steeper and reflects that it’s designed to be used at high speed. I think that once chucked into a relatively slow hand drill it wouldn’t cut all that well.
March 20th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Re SuperJdynamite Says:
Your’e absolutely right about old construction.
I have a demo sub who typically deals with the issue - so my crews usually start with bare walls on a remodel or build the walls on an addition - but I sometimes need to do some more surgical work. We use Fluke Low Vott Alert (1LAC-A) which sees most anything.