Hole Saws

[Hephaestus29]

Who makes the Best hole saws?

 

[Willie Makeit]

I like the Lenox brand and their system. I buy sizes as I need them.

 

[seber]

Lenox are the best I've used. They make them for a lot of others as well.

 

[matt_i]

Bahco, Blu Mol, Starrett, Lennox, they all work well.

Having enough power to control them and having holes so the chips can clear in thicker materials are more important than the brand imo.

It seems like a cordless impact tool would be a perfect app for a holesaw driver, kind of like what an impact tool can do for a spade bid in wood. But, its going to take a bigger hex shank and that's not available yet....

 

[RoninB4]

I always liked Lennox too. Run slow, use cutting fluid, and clear/flush the chips frequently.

 

[oldwino]

Lennox here too. Milwaukee used to be pretty good but theyseem to have gone downhill with the hole saws. COO maybe?

 

[Rinspeed]

The ones made by Greenlee hold up very well.

 

[ecotec]

The carbide ones are the best, but they are way more expensive than regular bimetal hole saws. My favorite bimetal hole saws are Morse.

 

[metaldad]

just blasted 50 holes in 1 1/2 wood with (1) 2 1/2'' lenox bi metal. cutting great, after the fact

 

[jeffmoss26]

I like Morse, made here in Ohio!

 

[Mr.N]

Who makes the Best hole saws?

Lots of good advice here...

What are you cutting? Metal, aluminum, wood or other?

I've a Lenox 1.75" that has 500+ cut's on it.
- all cuts used cutting fluid
- all cuts used a drill press at 250 rpms
- all cuts held with a jig
- all cuts on DOM .120
- its missing a few teeth
- not all cuts made the final weld... in fact some took 10-15 cuts to fit just right (just don't tell anyone it took me that many tries to make the pieces fit well)

.​

 

[Hephaestus29]

Lots of good advice here...

What are you cutting? Metal, aluminum, wood or other?

I've a Lenox 1.75" that has 500+ cut's on it.
- all cuts used cutting fluid
- all cuts used a drill press at 250 rpms
- all cuts held with a jig
- all cuts on DOM .120
- its missing a few teeth
- not all cuts made the final weld... in fact some took 10-15 cuts to fit just right (just don't tell anyone it took me that many tries to make the pieces fit well)

I do very little to no wood work, so
aluminum or metal more than likely.

.​

I do very little to no wood work, so
aluminum or metal more than likely.

 

[Monte]

Milwaukee used to be pretty good but theyseem to have gone downhill with the hole saws. COO maybe?

Made in USA

 

[spectrum1c]

Here is a brilliant, unbiased hole saw shootout

Just be warned, you may fall down the rabbit hole watching his videos of other tools you never thought you needed, but now bought because it scored the best ��

The 3 that did best were irwin, morse, and milwaukee dozer

 

[dogdog]

The milwaukee from HD and the spyder from Lowes seems to be flying off the shelves... of cause you would have to say what kind of hole saws...

Old harden steel tooth ones
new carbide tooth ones
newer diamond abrasive ones...

I just got a 1-3/8 milwaukee diamond coated one last week, pretty nice
I have a set of old fashion steel tooth from Ridgid and Lenox they are ok.

So what holes are you drilling ?

or what COO are you trolling ?

 

[dogdog]

Here is a brilliant, unbiased hole saw shootout

Just be warned, you may fall down the rabbit hole watching his videos of other tools you never thought you needed, but now bought because it scored the best ��

wholly snits ... he says whhhweeeell just like Stewie from Family Guy... LOL I dunno just notice these things. Now back to the topic.

 

[Tduby]

I have been impressed with the Milwaukee dozers plus I like the kit I got last Christmas to keep them organized it was a clearance of the old style without the extra holes for cleaning out the puck.

 

[oldwino]

Made in USA

Thanx Monte
Didn’t look at the package on the last couple I bought. Just made a bad assumption based on so much of Milwaukee stuff now sourced in POC. My mistake

 

[Ray-CA]

I had to put four, 6-inch holes in a lath and plaster ceiling. I got just over one hole (maybe 1 1/2) holes per Milwaukee hole saw.

Not impressed but I don't know if another brand would've done any better.

Ray

Sent from my LM-X220PM using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[pennsylvaniaboy]

meh, I buy good old irwin off amazon or local. About $10 a pop, made in usa, and hold up to metal tubing notcher. I like them over many other styles because they do not have the screwdriver window in the sides. Wood use you may want a different style.

 

[The Cobbler]

I had to put four, 6-inch holes in a lath and plaster ceiling. I got just over one hole (maybe 1 1/2) holes per Milwaukee hole saw.

Not impressed but I don't know if another brand would've done any better.

Ray

Sent from my LM-X220PM using The Garage Journal mobile app

you probably would have had better results with an abrasive hole saw for tile. plaster is very abrasive

 

[RTM]

Yeah, plaster is right up there with masonry for abrasive, nothing like drywall.

 

[nadogail]

Starret and Lennox are my choices.

I am fond of the Pin Drive mandrels.

 

[richpa]

I have always liked Greenlee,Morse, Starrett and Lennox. They all seem to be of similar quality. When drilling always run the drill slow and at right angles to the piece being drilled and use plenty of cutting fluid, and clear and flush out the chips frequently.

 

[lardy1]

I started using these back in the 80's when I got sick of cheap *** hole saws and ****** arbors. I just bought them as needed back when I was a building contractor and, over time, collected quite a few different sizes. I liked them on the jobsite because there was less parts and less labor lost setting up. The saws are bi-metal and I've never had to replace one. I cut a lot of particle board cabinetry with some of them and that's really hard on saws. They still work fine.