All Hail the Hole-Saw!

Yes, sometimes I feel a sense of near-worship for my power tools. Today's hero? The hole-saw!

Back at R2LA, we met a lovely couple from parts North. Sadly, I can't seem to retrieve names, but they were great! The gentleman-half of the duo mentioned that he'd seen my drilled dome, and that he'd found a better way to produce those HP holes: the hole-saw! Mind you, I'd considered it myself, but was afraid the force of the saw would contort the aluminum. He assured me that it would work like a charm...ah, the wisdom of the builder's group strikes again!

So yes, after a long holiday-hiatus, here we are a-droiding afresh. Now that we've got lovely weather back, and the Christmas decorations are finally put away, I've returned, and I've got my dome in my sights.

I finished off the one HP hole I'd made the most progress on, taped off the one hole that needs to look perfect, and dremelled out all the straight cuts for the front and rear logics. Guys and gals -- be sure to wear a mask when doing this, unless you want lungs full of aluminum dust! Just sayin'...



I'm lucky enough to own two dremels (I guess that should really be Dremels, with a capital D) so I kept them both at hand, loaded with cutting disks. These disks will wear down and shred frequently, launching shrapnel in all directions (note the piece stuck in the cut in the second photo below). I recommend long sleeves and protective eyewear at all times too! And maybe a cupcake, behind you, as motivation. Couldn't hurt!



Filing down sharp edges is important...here I pose with my file in my left hand. I'm not left-handed.



For the holes I had left, I broke out the previously-lauded HOLE SAWS! All those drill-holes I'd put in were simply not needed: I found the center of each hole, started it using a teensy (that's tech talk) bit, then powered through the hole in seconds using the HOLE SAW! Dear readers, it was so elegant and simple I could have wept. Just look at those perfect holes!!



The Hole Saw is so awesome I may need to make a shrine for it... :-) True, it was noisy as all get-out, and shimmied rather fiercely, but I felt pretty cool for taming the thing and bidding it to do my WILL!

Tomorrow -- a bit of paint on the inner dome, and some resin parts prep. Droid work is back ON!