How on earth do i cut out the hole for my hobo?

[Melonfish]

I'm having an utter nightmare trying to cut a hole in my stainless steel utensil holder to make my hobo.
i've got a nice Ikea job with lots of holes all over including the bottom. it should fire up wood without bother but i'm seriously struggling to cut a decent hole.
anybody got any tips or tool advice for this?
thanks
pete

 

[Shewie]

I used a Dremel clone for starting mine Pete, the discs were carp though so I end up using a hacksaw blade with a pair of pliers. Did the job in no time and then I just tidied up the edges with a ******* file.

EDIT:

Forgot you can't write ******* That'll be a metal file then.

 

[ged]

I'm having an utter nightmare trying to cut a hole in my stainless steel utensil holder to make my hobo.
i've got a nice Ikea job with lots of holes all over including the bottom. it should fire up wood without bother but i'm seriously struggling to cut a decent hole.
anybody got any tips or tool advice for this?

Stainless is a swine to work with, and if you try to drill it you need a sharp drill, firm pressure and COOLANT. A squeezy bottle full of water will do, best to get a friend to squirt it on the work for you. Try not to let the drill 'skip' on the metal, that destroys drill bits really quickly. The problem isn't the hardness of the metal, but the poor thermal conductivity of stainless which means that heat isn't conducted away from the cutting edges quickly enough.

It's probably easiest to use a padsaw with a hacksaw blade in it. You can cut stainless with a hacksaw fairly easily. To cut thin metal you need fine teeth. Don't cut at a right-angle to the sheet, cut at an acute angle so that a wider piece of metal is presented to the blade.

You can use tin snips if you have a pair small enough to start in one of the holes.

Let me know if you need more help.

 

[slammer187]

Assuming you don't have a Dremel or angle grinder, grab a pair of wire or tin snip and stick them in between the sections of metal that join the holes. Squeeze hard on them and try and bend the sections of metal joining the holes and do this all the way round in a rectangle. Once they're all bent you can simple cut them with the snips you used!
Then you can use a pliers to unbend all the tabs.

 

[Spikey DaPikey]

Of find a log the fits inside, and bash it out with a cold chisel and a lump hammer !

 

[Melonfish]

Wow, that really worked!
i found a pair of wire cutters and went to work on the metal. talk about hot knife through butter!

i then took a pair of pliers to all the jagged edges and bent the metal back and forth until it snapped off thus creating a straight edge.

then i spent 10 mins filing it with an illegitimate file and here's the results!

just got to cut down my skewers and find either a 10cm billy and i'm good to go!
test burn later today
thanks!
Pete

 

[wingstoo]

Another way is to use a slow speed pillar drill if you can, Have had to use it to dill 1mm S/Steel plate before and was really easy compared to a fast speed drill.

 

[naefearjustbeer]

I used a pillar drill on slow speed and a hole saw. I do not recommend this to anyone as the hole saw caught the thin metal and ripped the hobo out of the vice and nearly caused me some serious damage! I think the log inside and a chain drilling pattern round your hole would be a better plan followed up with a dremel to tidy up the rough edges.

 

[chris_irwin]

I used a pair of tin snips to cut between the holes, then filed down the jagged edges.

 

[EdS]

blow torch or fire first to get it red hot and then cool it. Helps alot.

 

[Ray Britton]

A very easy and quick way to make a hole (but is has to be a round one) is to use a tool for making tap holes in sink tops. you siply screw the tool into one of the existing holes, and then turn the top with a spanner. In less than a minute, you will have a perfect hole cut, with no power tools or drills needed (so you can use it out in the fiield).

If you made a few stoves, then the cost of the tool (you can buy them from merchants or Ikea etc) will be reduced. The downside it that it may have an odd egde to the hole, due to the existence of the holes already in the utensil.

here is a link to a pic of one:

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/28512100

It will bend the utensil as it cuts, but you can simply bend it back into shape after.........After all, you will be setting fire to it later, so looks are not too important lol

 

[telwebb]

I know the 'punch', but would you be buying a sink with no tap holes? Anyhow - give the doodah to your mate who has a family run business making medical and commercial SS equipment and jobs a goodun Having said that he's had mine for a while and not come up with owt....

 

[Melonfish]

well i'm all up and running now chaps, got some pine cones drying on the radiator to test in a short while (when the kids have gone to bed) but i've cut 4 stainless skewers down to size and as you can see from the pics my hole is cut and ready to go. just got to fire it up now.
i think i'll get a commercial billy just because i can, i did look in my local to tea/coffee tins but they're all stainless and glass mix so not the best to use.

 

[addo]

Just get busy with an angle grinder (£15 odd quid and worth buying if into diy), takes seconds.
Always file off the burrs afterwards.

 

[shaggystu]

blow torch or fire first to get it red hot and then cool it. Helps alot.

this really good advice. i don't know specifically about the ikea drainers but a lot of stainless cannisters are maunfactured using a cold press method. perhaps surprisingly, when materials come off the cold press they're pretty hot. because of this there's quite often a lot of water involved in the proccess to keep the press from over-heating, this water transfers over to the item being pressed and effectively acts as a quenching agent. as we all know when you quench hot steel the steel gets hardened. so, the steel could well benefit from annealing, throw it in a fire(or use a blow torch) until it's pretty hot, and then leave it alone until it's cold. the steel should then be softer and easier to work.

cheers

stuart

 

[DaveBromley]

I used a pair of aviation tin snips and it was like cutting through paper with scissors!

Dave

 

[siman]

Pliers and a hacksaw. Can literally just snap pieces of the steel off it's that thin. Used to work with stainless for a living making prototype exhausts. Stainless cutting disc on the angle grinder works a treat, like a hot knife through butter. It's really not as hard to cut/ drill as people are making out.

 

[telwebb]

right - update to my previous - gave it to said mate. Apparently he and his staff scratched there heads and decided that as they weren't 'tooling up' for a major production run the best approach was a dremel type cutter used gently - well I'll be doodah'd!