It's been one of those days

[wheels 543]

If you have had a bad day (hey it's Monday) I thought I would share mine, just incase you think you have the monopoly of bad days. It's not terrible in anyway, just one of those kind that when you get to the end of it, your think well that was a waste of time, it would have been quicker and cheaper to have done x in the first place.

I normally use the Bimetal Holesaws like Bluemole, Starret etc etc. But they never last long with SST. I have tried them all. 18months ago, I used for the first time a TCT tipped Holesaw made by Lenox. Cuts through steel like butter. I was impressed. But the TCT teeth are little wee chips of things and make one mistake like jamming the drill and you remove all the teeth in an instant. And once it starts to get blunt, it can't be sharpened and the holesaw is expensive.
I have some SST work to do right now and am cutting lots of holes, so I have been looking at what else is around. I have come across some nice ones with decent teeth size and they can be sharpened if a tooth is chipped. I decided to buy a range of them covering the sizes I needed, which was a rather substantial outlay.
They have been going OK, but I ran one just a little too fast and chipped the teeth. It's best to run them on the slow side in SST. Anyway, no problem. I will give it a sharpen. I hunted everywhere for my Air die grinder, a little high speed pencil looking thing that takes all the bits the Dremel come takes. I have gone through two Dremels in short succession and neither were covered by warranty, so I didn't want to go down that track again and bought the Air driven thing. But I couldn't find it anywhere and remembered I left it in Auckland. Never mind, they are not too expensive. But no one in Blenheim has them. That left me with having to look at the electric options. I have had a bad run with Ryobi, so didn't want that. Don't like the ell cheapo Ozito etc. Fuller had a unit for $98.Ouch. Dremel's was $109. Well I do have all the attachments for Dremel. OK, lets go Dremel again. Walk to Counter, lady says $148 please. What? hang about and I went back to the shelf. Someone had slid the box to the wrong price tag. The $109 unit was out of stock. Helpful fellow said but you can get this one for $148 and it has all the little bits. No thanks, I already have heaps. OK, then this one at $118, only $9 more and less bits. Oh OK, and go buy it. I get back to work and find the bits and get my self all set up. Only to find I the mandrel that takes the little grinding stone had a stripped thread. I spent an hr or so hunting through my boxes of screws but can't find anything that would fit. It seems Dremel have their own thread. Back to M10 and brought two mandrels. Which came to $22. Of which I would have got in the Kit if I paid $148. Back to workshop and with just 30mins left of the day, I sharpen a holesaw. I was so brassed off.I could have ordered a new holesaw, have it on my doorstep all the way from Auckland by tomorrow morning, for it would have cost half of what I ended up spending, plus I would have had a day of actually getting something done and not wasted fuel running around the Town.
Ha, ya have to laugh eh.

[Steve Pope 251]

I Know how you feel!!!

[smithy09 50]

Hey Wheels. I hear you on hole-saws. Here offshore we use Sutton TCT-Pro holesaws. I had never used them before I joined this dive ship but I am well impressed. We mostly use 316 stainless and we have our fair share of idiots trying to cut stainless at high speed.... These things last way longer than anything else I have used and very rarely shatter. They have carbide (or similar) teeth and are sharpenable. I'm sure they're expensive, but if I was going to buy a new holesaw, I would get one of these. Awesome. The one pictured is 30mm.

[wheels 543]

They look nice smithy. I must remember Sutton do them. Starret also, but the cost is stupid expensive. The best price I have found is with Test-n-Tools. For a comparison, this one Retails for $69.
I also come across someone selling metal cutting TCT bandsaw blades on Trademe. About $400 odd for the size mine uses as against $70 for a Bi-metal. I think if you were doing lots of simple cuts it would be worth it, but one mistake and a lot of money gone in an instant.
I talked a a guy that had just bought a CNC lathe and he and his engineer were trying to set it up. I asked what he thought of it and his reply was, "I am sure it will be great once we get it set up properly and running. But at the moment we have crashed and destroyed so many cutters. Basically once you realise there is a mistake in the program, it is all over before you can yell Oh S%^T"
 

[smithy09 50]

Used off here by idiots and lasted well Wheels. If divers can't breakl them they have got to be good..