Need some better Hole Saws

Brand name hole saws are round. Just try stepping up to something like a Menards store brand, then up to Klein or Lennox or Milwaukee, till you find a good round / price balance. Are you sure the arbor in the saw is true?

I have used Lennox and Milwaukee and worked well. It takes a lot to use such a big hole saw and you need to really hold down your work piece. It can come loose and be dangerous.

Use one of your two routers and make a template works every time.

Note : a 4 or 5” hole saw will eventually destroy your drill press.

Suggested Method:
1 Mark out the template dimensions
2 drill a hole with your 220 V drill
3 Use your jig saw to remove the bulk of the waste
4 position template guide over your job
5 rout out to the guide using one of your cheap router bits with a bearing on it
6 remove the template you made
7 Pat yourself on the back and have a gunmball
8 Job complete, or
9 Repeat

Live in the garage is now better! ....
that is assuming your daughter is not screaming at you to shut the @#$% up down there!

-- Regards Rob

++ on the router. Nice spiral bit and you are in business.

The router is a good bet like they say above.

My drill press has two cone shaped pullies with several levels that I can put them so, slower but more powerful for turning a large bit like a hole saw. And my arbor is massive on this old craftsman unit so no issues. If yours isn’t like that then you might consider the strain on it.

Anyway…. I’ve had good luck with bi-metalic bits. They last a long time if you can find some that size.
Either way. If you do this make sure you clamp the wood down good. When a large hole saw grabs it it’s pretty dangerous.

-- The smell of wood, coffee in the cup, the wife let's me do my thing, the lake is peaceful.

Router, on 4” and 5” a piece of cake with a router trammel. big is easy to a point, it’s teeeny tiny that can be tough.

Using a template your only qualifier is size of the bit.

Just make sure to do the holes prior to making any shapes, cutting flat work is easy, bumpy not so much.

-- Think safe, be safe

.

-- Andy - Seattle USA

I’m also of the mindset that a small router, spiral bit and a circle jig would be the best way to go.

Faster, and cleaner too.

But if you’re set on a hole saw; then you should look at a carbide tipped one. Milwaukee has a multi-tooth one in the sizes you need. $40-$50 each. Almost certainly a special order too.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-5-in-Carbide-Hole-Dozer-Saw-49-56-0748/310212743

Make a template and use a router….best idea!

+ however many we’re at for a template and router.

I do speaker and amp cabinets that require 10-ish and 12-ish inch holes. I use a router with a circle template to make the template. Then, I follow RobCastle’s steps. The router bit and jigsaw blades last longer than hole saws and are more accurate in the long run.

-- John F. SoCal transplant, chewer uppper of good wood

My gripe with hole saws is that so often they wobble in the mandrel leaving a hole slightly larger than the nominal size of the hole saw. I’ve tried the more expensive mandrels with some improvement, but still not wholly satisfactory. I sometimes use them to make holes in aluminum or even steel, and their faults are even more pronounced. They dull quickly with this sort of use, naturally.

-- I admit to being an adrenaline junky; fortunately, I'm very easily frightened

My experience with the wobble is they do it when using too small a mandrel for the size of the saw’s diameter. One of the reasons I wouldn’t buy a “set” unless it came with enough mandrels, and of the appropriate size to cover the saws included. Milwaukee tends to do this with theirs, lower level pieces like HF do not, they go more with one size fits all. Tiny bit, and mandrel on even a 2” saw will wobble.

-- Think safe, be safe

Have drilled a LOT of large holes into wood over years. Use several methods.
Often needed odd ball sizes not available as standard hole saw used for drilling clearance holes for installing pipe in walls.
Router and template work well, they are just slow.
If you don’t want to DIY a template, Jasper Tools offers a range templates for different hole size ranges. http://jaspertools.com/
Jasper templates are stuck with holes cut in 1/8 in increments? The other challenge is using recommended 1/4in bit, means you have limit cut depth to 1/4 in per pass or bit burns up in most woods.

Back when I was cutting 50+ holes per day; used fly cutter or circle cutter like this:

https://www.generaltools.com/heavy-duty-circle-cutter
Own 18 of them, each set for standard hole sizes I needed at time.
Have a love/hate relationship with silly things. They can be really scary to use.
Drill press is must for these, but it still vibrates some with larger holes on cheap drill press.
Can be fussy to set up, but stay set and can make a lot of holes the exact same size once set properly.
Never want to get your hand near one while it’s spinning, or you might break a finger.
If you change the HSS cutter to carbide, they last really long time between sharpening, even when cutting holes in plywood.
If need larger holes than 7.5 in standard, can change out the cross bar with longer shaft. With 8-12 in hole cutters I made, added a counterbalance to opposite side to help it run smoother.
YMMV

-- If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all, - Albert King - Born Under a Bad Sign released 1967

Fly cutter works if your drill press has a slow enough speed. Many do not. When I was building speakers, I found ny benchtop Delta was too fast for anything over about 4 inches. Scary. My new (old) floor model might a be a bit less intimidating. I went to a DIT router jig with an adjustable slide.

Brand name hole saws are round. Just try stepping up to something like a Menards store brand, then up to Klein or Lennox or Milwaukee, till you find a good round / price balance. Are you sure the arbor in the saw is true?

- ibewjon

I found a set of Lennox saws at a local tool store for about half of what the Big Box stores charge and they seem to be doing fine. I like the fact that the hole saws are quick to change and don’t require any setup to get the size right like most jigs do.