The teeth feel much catchier after filing them with a triangular jeweler's saw (left half is done), but it still takes a minute of rocking the but back and forth to get through 3/4" plywood.
this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2025
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Huh, I always assumed these were consumables. Never thought about sharpening one
They pretty much are. You can sharpen them, but the issue I've found is that over time and use they heat up and warp, and effectively become useless (especially on metal).
You could always do the old tile-cutting trick. Use the saw to cut a sponge. Now you have a sponge that perfectly fits inside the hole saw. Get it wet, and leave it in the saw when you cut. Now your hole saw will be cooled by the water in the sponge.
It’s an old trick for when you can’t easily keep running water on a tile saw while cutting a hole. Cuz you typically cut tile under water to prevent your blade from heating up. But if that’s not feasible, you can essentially just fill your saw blade with water instead.
Great advice, do you get a lot of nudes PMd to you for woodworking hacks like this? :)
It has only happened a few times, but it’s always a fun surprise.
You can fix the warping, or close-enough to "fixed", if you're poor or cheap or just obsessed with wringing the value from each purchase ( hi ).
Luckilly, the line between "fixable" and "holy shit, this things wobbling so much its going to grab, walk its way off the board, and cut into my leg" is readilly apparent, to anyone who has any business using such tools.
Honestly I just assume grab new ones once they go shitty, the cost of me taking the time to mess with it vs buying a new one is not worth it in terms of productivity. In my world of electrical the holes need to be perfectly circular, so I just assume not waste time on it.
Right there with you. I have cheap sets in case I loose the carbide-tipped ones in the size I want between pay-checks, and to lend out, but if one of those cheapos goes egg-shaped, I'm more likedy to throw it away or find another use for it than to try to fix it.
I found a few videos of folks sharpening them, thought I'd give it a try.
Can you file at an angle so the leading edge of the tooth is more narrow than the back? It might be less grabby, if that's the issue.