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**365drills** · 06-04-2008

Cutting big holes in tiles (75mm 85mm 95mm 100mm 105mm 110mm 115mm 120mm 125mm) for things like extract fan - soil stack when no fixed pillar drill is available on site.

Easy solution

Tools required:
1) Battery hand drill
2) Holesaw (we supply)
3) Piece of scrap plasterboard

Use a pencil to draw a circle round the 365Drills holesaw on the plasterboard. Then cut or score the paper with a knife.

Use your battery drill and the 365-drills holesaw to slowly bore into the soft plaster. A perfect hole will form in a couple of seconds and punch out the other side.

Discard the formed plug or "core" You now have a perfect template for your holesaw.

Place the plasterboard over the correct area on the tile to be drilled. Use it as a guide to start the hole. About 2mm deep in the tile is enough.

For stability you can stand on both the plasterboard and tile. Drill between your legs!

Once started remove and discard the plasterboard. Wet the area to cool the diamonds on the holesaw. Drill slowly and steadily. The drill will gradually grind away the tile at a comfortable, safe and consistant rate.

Because the drill is locked into its own trench or pit there is no chance of drill slip, drill wander, or tile scratching.

Its impossible to damage the tile because the two are self-guiding.

Depending on the hardness of the material a perfect core will be cut in about 3mins (soft) to 5mins (hard) in ANY tile or material from soft ceramics to C5 Hard porcelain tiles. It even works on slate, clay pipes, granite worktops, brick, marble, travertine, glass etc etc

Two points to remember:
1) This method is quick and easy and wont damage expensive tiles.
2) Its cheap. To make a similar hole size 120mm using an Armeg drill would cost you £160 for the drill bit. £40 for the water cooler. £20 for the arbour. £28 for the pilot drill. So you will pay about £250 for the kit for one hole.

And there you have it !

The full article is produced on our website in much more detail and with more piccies - but this explains the principles.