Cutting Nice Holes

[jwatts]

Any sugestions on how to cut very nice holes for your drivers to rest in the cabinets? I have been using a jig saw or a ROTOZip so far.

[x. onasis]

Plunge router and a Jasper JIg are the most versatile. For smaller drivers in arrays or tweeters I prefer to use heavy duty circle cutters in a drill press, it can be much faster.

A small diameter router bit designed to pull the chip up works best with MDF.

[scone]

A cheaper alternative is to use a Craftsman all-in-one cutting tool .
It's sort of a glorified drill that can take up to 3/8" router bits and comes with a router base, and a circle cutting guide. Made of plastic though, and the circle guide is not terrible precise so you have to be extra careful when setting up the cuts. I countersunk my woofers and cut circles out of 3/4 thick birch plywood with no problems. I could not, however, countersink my tweeter b/c the circle guide that comes with it does not do circles that small. It all depends on what you need from the tool... the advantage is that it's $50 or $60 at Sears, which is cheaper than the cheapest router they carry.

If you have a drill press I'd use circle cutters with it like onasis mentioned.

I should also mention that there is a variant of the craftsman tool that's $30 or so more expensive and comes with a couple more attachments, like an edge guide and a few other things.

[Vikash]

Originally posted by scone
A cheaper alternative is to use a Craftsman all-in-one cutting tool .
It all depends on what you need from the tool... the advantage is that it's $50 or $60 at Sears, which is cheaper than the cheapest router they carry.

I have a £20 plunge router which is the cheapest and most versatile tool in my workshop. It even comes with a few attachments and 5 bits. If you can pick one up for the equivilent in $'s then there is nothing more useful for DIY cabinet making IMO. With a diy jig (a thin plank of wood and a nail) you can rebate and cut baffle holes very accurately.

If you can get a router over here for 20 quid then you should be able to get one over your side of the pond for what, 20 cents maybe

[Timn8ter]

I like the circle jig most of the time also. I've recently found myself making the same size holes over and over again so I purchased the appropriately sized hole saw. One issue with the circle jig is that it can make swirl marks on finished surfaces. This is a problem when making rabbets on veneered cabs so I purchased a rabbet bit with various sizes of bearings. This works very well.

[wintermute]

The problem I had with a hole saw is that they don't seem to be that accurate. I didn't use a drill press though, so that could be the problem. Wouldn't be a problem for driver mounting, but caused me some greif with holes for ports (they were slightly bigger than they should have been). The other thing to consider is a hole saw won't let you flush mount.......

I made a diy circle jig recently, peice of masonite with a few carefully positioned holes. worked a treat. Only tricky bit is when the hole is smaller than the faceplate of the router, makes it hard to get the pin in the right place! I'd advise not having any holes in the jig close to each other for this reason, or you may end up with a hole out by a mm or so


Tony.

[Jim85IROC]

For larger holes, I built an adjustable device for my router that basically works the same way as a Jasper Jig.



For smaller circles, I use an adjustable hole saw. The style I have is old and somewhat dangerous, but very effective. Newer ones that have 2 or 3 cutting edges instead of just the one like mine seem like they would be safer:

[Timn8ter]

The other thing to consider is a hole saw won't let you flush mount.......

The hole saw is only for the through hole, then a rabbet bit on a router is used for the recess. This is about the only way to go if you're dealing with truncated frames.

[johnthetweeker]

I use a tank cutter like the one in pic below, mounted on a heavy duty hand drill. Quite cheap, and goes easy up to 6" dia. Could also manage an 8" hole with some difficulty.

[jwatts]

Could you please show me a picture of a hole cut with your jig. I have a router. I think I am going to try to fabricate something like your jig. I have tried the Black and Decker version of the Craftsman all in one cutting tool. I have run into problem with the cutter flexing and trying to move.