Drilling holes
 

What's the best way to drill gel so you don't chip it?

Hole saws and regular drills.

Re: Drilling holes
 

Number of different ways to go about it.....first make sure to tape the area you want to drill through with masking tape. The blue painters tape works best for me because it peels off nice.
If you gonna use a hole saw then start the saw in REVERSE and let the teeth of the hole saw saw their way through the gel first. This works cause the sharp edge of the hole saw is not catching the gel its just scuffing its way through. When you get through the gel the run the drill the proper way to cut the hole.
Another way but slightly more expensive is to use a hole saw made for tile cuting. they have the diamond encrusted type and they will melt right through gel realy nicely :)

Re: Drilling holes
 

Thanks Wally.

Re: Drilling holes
 

After your done drilling use a countersink on the hole. That will keep spider cracks to a bare minimum. Brian

Re: Drilling holes
 

This is also a good idea but again make sure to run the countersink in reverse to prevent cracking. better yet but more time consuming is to use sand paper to make the radiuses.

Re: Drilling holes
 

Good idea again, You can also try mandrel mounted stones in a drill. They come in all shapes and sizes I use ball shapes to take off the edge. Use one twice or more as large as the hole. Get a few different sizes and your set. Just start slow it's a pain to get all that dust back into gel :D

Re: Drilling holes
 

never tried the stone bit, sounds like it would work though, as far as putting the dust back in just call JCperf and ask to borrow his duct tape, it goes right back that way, it even comes in lots of cool colors these days :D If you do use the countersink method make sure you get a countersink with atleat 3 cutter edges, preferbaly 4 the ones with onyl two tend to jump and grab gel even in reverse.