Drilling a 2-1/4" hole in the bottom of the conduit box

kaikoasurf · Joined: 15 Dec 2010 Posts: 96

Since this isn't something that I do everyday I'd like to share with you my little headache that I had drilling the 2-1/4'' hole with my new hole saw into the bottom cover of the Gang Box. When you go to drill a hole make sure you put a plug into the hole that your pilot bit is drilling into. This will make your drilling more efficient and cleaner. My first hole that I drilled took about 30 minutes to cut. I figured out that the hole-saw was moving around more since it didn't have the pilot bit guiding it. My second hole that I cut had a Lug that I screwed in. None-the-less it took me about 2-3 minutes to drill a nice clean hole.
Kal show's a pic of him drilling his gang box out without a lug in it. Who's to say that he may have a top of the line drill press or hole-saw but it got the job done. Also, as to kal's advice I used the cutting oil. This was an awesome way to protect my investment and not dull my bits. So you can either take my advice or piss on it but it got the job done and in the process drank 3 beer's which made it worthwhile Drunk

crush · Joined: 28 Dec 2010 Posts: 706 Location: Telemark, Norway

I cut my holes last week. I bought a fairly cheap 10" drill press and used that. I was so amazed that it cut through the box and almost effortless. I took it slowly, used plenty of cutting oil. I didn't time it, but would guess about a minute to cut through, and the hole was clean. But using one of the spare lugs from the box is a good idea! I wish I had thought of that.

I had trouble getting the hole centered. I took the original paper card that came with the outlet boxes, folded it twice to find the center point and used that as a template. I only have F-clamps, which didn't hold on well to the piece, so it did move a few mm and the hole was slightly off center.