mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) (05/12/85)
We ran up against that problem too. It seems that when you buy a house, you get a break on your insurance rates if you have deadbolts, a fire extinguisher, and smoke alarms. We have metal doors. If you go shopping, you'll find that the typical deadbolt needs to have a pair of 2.5" holes cut in the door, and a .75" hole in the edge of the door for the bolt. It's not hard to find 2.5" hole saws, although they will swear up and down on the labels that they are for wood only. Finding a .75" drill bit is darn near impossible, hole saws don't go that small, and .75" bits cost an arm and a leg and require a 1/2" drill. (If you own a drill, it's almost certainly a 1/4" or 3/8", too small for a .75" bit.) I hate to think of the amount of work involved in getting a .75" hole drilled in metal, too. Figure at least $50 for a drill that size, plus $10 for the bit - almost makes it seem worthwhile to call that locksmith. Fortunately, we lucked out. We happened to look at the end of our door where the .75" hole would be drilled, and found that there was a plastic cover over a predrilled .75" hole! So all we had to do was buy 2.5" hole saws. (Check your door - I suspect this is standard.) The reason these hole saws are not intended for metal is that they are made out of an incredibly cheap metal themselves. You will wear down all the teeth on the hole saw in the process of cutting your hole. However, given the alternative (call a locksmith) we tried it out. We had to do two doors - front and back, a total of 4 holes. We went through 3 hole saws before getting all 4 holes cut. The holes came out a bit ragged (as we were grinding our way through the door more than cutting) but the deadbolt covers the ugly spots. The most annoying part was having to make 3 trips to the hardware store for another hole saw. Mark
jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos) (05/14/85)
mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Oh) writes: > ... .75" bits cost an arm and a leg and require a 1/2" drill. (If you own a > drill, it's almost certainly a 1/4" or 3/8", too small for a .75" bit.) > Figure at least $50 for a drill that size... You don't really have to buy a new drill, though. You can get 1/2" drill chucks which are on the end of a 3/8" shaft; you put the 1/2" chuck into your drill's chuck, and put the drill into the 1/2" chuck, and use that. I am not sure where these chucks come from; I have had one in my toolbox for many years, but I forgot where I got it. (It was from some place in Atlanta that sells power tools.) Actually the chucks on most drills unscrew off the drill. Some of them provide a hole where you stick a screwdriver or nail in order to prevent the shaft from rotating; others you have to improvise. I'm not sure if 1/2" chucks are available with the same size threads or not, though. But one of these approaches would probably be better than buying a new drill. -- Full-Name: J. Eric Roskos UUCP: ..!{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!vax135!petsd!peora!jer US Mail: MS 795; Perkin-Elmer SDC; 2486 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32809-7642
jay@unm-la.UUCP (05/15/85)
> So all we had to do was buy 2.5" hole saws. > . . . > The most annoying part was having to make 3 trips to the > hardware store for another hole saw. No, no, no! FIRST you go the the art supply store and buy a circle template (make sure it has circles big enough). THEN you go to the hardware store. But you don't buy a hole saw. You buy a round file. Go home, get a sharp #2 pencil, draw a circle where you want the hole, drill a starter hole (as big as your largest drill bit), and start hacking with the file. It'll go faster than you think, not to mention all the gas you'll save. -- Jay Plett {cmcl2,ihnp4}!lanl!unm-la!jay {ucbvax,gatech}!unmvax!unm-la!jay unm-la!jay@lanl.ARPA
markb@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Mark Biggar) (05/15/85)
What's so hard about finding a .75" spade bit. It may not make as clean a
hole as a helical bit, but you cover the edges of the hole with the bolt
plate anyway.
Mark Biggar
{allegra,burdvax,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,akgua,sdcsvax}!sdcrdcf!markbjhillis@ihuxx.UUCP (Jeffrey Hillis) (05/17/85)
> mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Oh) > writes: > > > ... .75" bits cost an arm and a leg and require a 1/2" drill. (If you own a > > drill, it's almost certainly a 1/4" or 3/8", too small for a .75" bit.) > > Figure at least $50 for a drill that size... > > You don't really have to buy a new drill, though. You can get 1/2" drill > chucks which are on the end of a 3/8" shaft; you put the 1/2" chuck into > your drill's chuck, and put the drill into the 1/2" chuck, and use that. I > am not sure where these chucks come from; I have had one in my toolbox for > many years, but I forgot where I got it. (It was from some place in Atlanta > that sells power tools.) > I have a 3/8" drill which I have used for years to drill holes up to 1 1/2" in diameter. I use Irwin speed bits (sometimes called spade bits) which are a flat bit mounted on a 3/8" shank. These bits are not recommended for use in a hand drill, but can be used easily and effectively.