Large Holes for Woodworking Dummies

shop-built hole jig based on a trammel

Several of our staffers here a the Antisocial Network are competent DIYers, the kind of person you'd probably love to have for a friendly, helpful neighbor (as long as you returned their tools!). Their competence with a wide variety of projects makes them pretty good at spotting the bull pumped out by freelancers who would very likely be hopeless as DIYers, freelancers like eHowian Lauren Vork. We might ask Lauren a music question ('cause of her degree), but when it comes to "How to Cut a 6-Inch Hole"?¹ Her HomeSteady.com post is pretty damning...

Vork opened it all by intoning,

"In many building projects, getting parts and holes of the perfect size is essential. Having an ideal fit of pieces often requires cutting holes to exact dimensions. Make a perfect, 6-inch hole in any material using a flexible measuring technique and maneuverable cutting method, allowing you to get that perfect, snug fit each and every time."

Well, it sounds good, but where the rubber meets the road is how well Lauren researched and copied-reworded-pasted the instructions for her "flexible measuring technique and maneuverable cutting method". Let's see what it is:

"Select a proper cutting bit for the material. Oscillating cutter bits are sold with manufacturer recommendations regarding the hardness of material they should cut..."

Wait, what? "Oscillating cutter bits"? WTF are those? Vork wants her readers to draw a 3-inch line on the surface and, "Transcribe the line into a circle with a 6-inch diameter." That's not what "transcribe" means, Lauren. And then there's this sage advice:

"If the surface is curved or otherwise irregular, cut a 3-inch piece of string and stretch this over the contours of the surface..." 

She's apparently unaware that the resulting circle wouldn't be six inches in diameter... and it might not be a circle, either!

After a couple hundred (poorly-chosen) words describing how to measure the circle, Vork gets to the actual cutting:

"Turn on the oscillating tool and set it to a medium speed. Insert the tip of the spinning router bit into the center of the circle you've outlined. Cut a line from this point out to the edge of the circle. Trace the outside of the circle to cut..."

Well, maybe... but probably not. Most people, faced with the question, would suggest using a jigsaw after drilling a hole for a starter or – better yet – a trammel-style jig, even shop-built (see image above). A plunge router would work, too, to make certain the hole was cut cleanly. Heck, there might even be six-inch hole saws available. But an "[o]scillating cutter"? Nahhhh – that's Dumbass of the Day work.

NOTE: We wanted to know where Vork got this information, but her sole reference is a 1996 book. We just happen to have that same book in the library, and it says nothing about oscillating tools, which weren't even available to DIYers in those days. Oops... could this reference be fake?

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/how_7586206_cut-6inch-hole.html

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