Hole Saw Slug Problem
By J.R. Bluett
Recently we were testing some hole saws in the Toolmonger shop, and we managed to get a giant, circular hunk of two-by-four stuck in a saw. After some thought we ended up removing the chunk with a small drill bit and a large common screwdriver, but we started wondering if any of you have a better solution.
I found some interesting tools that could’ve helped — a slug ejector for $12 and a hole saw hook for $5 — but waiting for a tool to ship would’ve been downtime with no hole saw.
What would you have done? Let us know in comments.
Macro Hole Saw [Flickr]
Slug Ejector [Qk-Saw Store]
Hole Saw Hook [mytoolstore.com]
May 9th, 2008 at 11:53 am
This has happened to me 3 times in the past 2 months. The first time I heated up the hole saw really quickly with a cigarette lighter and the chunk fell out. This left burn marks all over the hole saw.
The second and third times I drilled two holes in the face of the chunk, angled Allen wrenches into the holes vise gripped the allen wrenches and pulled it out .
May 9th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Use a Quick-Release Hole Saw Arbor. The arbor releases and you push the disk out of the hole saw. Slide it off and it snaps back into place.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=59737&cat=51&ap=1
May 9th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I’ve encountered this MANY times… Absolute easiest way I’ve found (which, I know, sounds like a total hack technique) is to drill (2) long self-tapping screws (longer than the length of the collet bit - 3″ sheetrock screws normally work nicely) adjacent to the collet bit, use a beefy screwdriver (or other lever, strong tool, rod, etc) between the screws (like this: O / O ), and slowly run the drill in reverse (or chuck the holesaw into a vise) and use the lever to back the bound up chunk of wood out of the holesaw =)
Hope that made sense! Works every time for me…
May 9th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
I do a version of the allen wrench technique. My bigger hole saws are in the drill press, making toy wheels and such. There’s usually two holes in the back of the hole saw blade, and I push a pair of allen keys into these holes to drive the plug out.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I second what the other Mike says. My hole saws have a pair of little holes in the back, presumably for this problem.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
For lightly-held pieces of things like siding and sheet metal we fabricated some pullers out of rod-stock that is just a bit smaller in diameter than the slots on the hole-saw sides. The rod in bent into a sprung-apart U-shape and the 2 ends are bent around facing inward into a small “V”. To use it you hook the back of the thin plug on 2 sides and pull.
Another jig is nothing more than 2 1/4-20 flat-head bolts set into tapped and countersunk holes in piece of 1/4 plate (we use aluminum - but wood might do) The bolts are spaced apart on the same centerlines as the holes located on the back of your hole saws (for all but the smallest sizes this is a standard dimension) The bolts need to be just long enough to push out the plug from the rear.
When we do rough-in work we generally avoid the problem entirely by using Selfeed Bits.
May 9th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I had not looked at your links before when I talked about the bent rod pullers we cobble together. It looks like our pullers may infringe on someone else’s design.
BTW we bought a set of Bosch sheet metal hole saws and they come with springs (old Crain Tile hole saws had the same idea) to eject the slug. They also have a neat rear rim to prevent the saw from blowing through the hole.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
How about a holesaws that doesn’t get the plug stuck?
Lenox one tooth
www.lenoxtools.com/enUS/Product/ONE_TOOTH_ROUGH_WOOD_HOLE_CUTTER.html
Or just use an appropriate self feed bit, I like Milwaukees offering, You can get them in 1″ to 4 5/8″
May 9th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Nice tip Tim B. Thank you.
May 10th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
I have just taken saw off the collar and pushed it out. I work in a door shop using hole saws for 1.75″ doors and it happens almost every time I use it.