Most Helpful Customer Reviews (November 19, 2009)
By Michael Winters Great tool for skylights and large ceiling speakers!!!
On occasion we install both large in-ceiling speakers and tubular skylights. These require a hole that is anywhere from 10 to 16.5 inches in diameter to be cut into sheetrock or plaster or acoustic tile. The Hole Pro X-425 adjusts from 2" up to 17" and is great for this. The in-ceiling woofers take cutouts from 12 to 15 inches but the skylights (Solatube and Velux) take holes anywhere from 10" to nearly 17" in size and so the X-425 is perfect for both. We use it only on the interior ceiling holes but this is where the lack of mess and clean edges on the holes is most important.
With a 1/2" drill on its highest torque setting the hole cutter will cut most materials up to a 17" hole size. There is too much leverage for the drill to manage this large a hole size in wood but we have made larger holes by taking the blade off one of the blade holders so the drill does not have to work as hard. With only the weight of the blade there is still very good balance - a lot better than any of the one blade hole cutters.
With very large holes that are being cut into ceilings it is very difficult to trace the cutout circle much less cut it out and be able to catch the cut plug before it falls and hits something. With the Hole Pro X-425 the large clear shield holds all the dust AND the cutout piece of sheetrock. We save the time we used to spend moving furniture out of the way and laying out a drop cloth and then vacuuming up and putting everything back in place.
Having the adjustment knob is a neat feature as we can set it to cut through just the 5/8" sheetrock and not worry about hitting a wire. The shield makes it easy to do a perfectly straight in cut so everything sits flat. With plaster ceilings and a reciprocating saw the up and down movement can cause the layers of the plaster to separate and crack which is a very expensive repair to make with re-plastering and repainting of the ceiling in a room. The lateral movement of the Hole Pro hole cutter's blades are a much safer solution that greatly reduces the risk.
The ABS shield is very light and yet quite strong and has a soft edge gasket that prevents scratching of the work surface while sealing in the dust. The slots catch the shavings so you can see what you are doing the whole time. It is very large at 19" diameter so we only use it when needed for holes larger than 12 inches and the rest of the time we use the 12" X-305 from Hole Pro.
Hole Pro X-305 Kit 1-7/8" to 12" infinitely adjustable twin blade Tungsten Carbide Hole Saw Cutter 6" 7" 8" 9" 10" 11" 12" holes in wood drywall plaster fiberglass OSB cement board- Use ¼ torque of hole saws and cut twice as fast
A friend uses this 17" hole cutter to make speaker enclosures, mostly for cars where he cuts through plywood, MDF, or fiberglass. He likes being able to use it in a hand drill and still get a straight in cut with a clean edge for mounting the 14 and 15 inch woofers he uses.
Technical Details:
+hole, saw, inch, adjustable, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, carbide, tungsten
+wood, lathe, plaster, fiberglass, speaker, ceiling, boat
+recessed, light, can, duct, skylight, unico, stove, fan
+Asbestos, acoustic tile, X-200, X-305, sheetrock
+CCTV
