Just used 365 drills for the first time

[Deleted member 1779]

Hi AllurePTS

Using water is really easy with ours. All you do is place a wet sponge under the drill bit as you are drilling for two reasons:
1) Too cool the bit.
2) To catch all the dust as it comes out of the hole.

Most installers have access to a bucket and sponge so its quick easy way to take heat out.

Water feeds are only mandatory on systems with pilot drills. That's because pilot drills are made of carbide and if allowed to get hot - warp. In contrast diamond tip crowns can take much more punishment and temperature extremes, they are quite forgiving of temperature ranges. Just dont let them get too hot. To start the hole off you can almost dry drill with the holesaw and guide plate. Remove the guide and add the wet sponge.

Another bonus of this system is that its much cleaner that water fed systems. With a water-feed you will "dump" water over the drill site which has to be cleaned up in a second stage.

But using a wet sponge ensures everything is contained at the working site so its much easier to tidy up. Give it a try and you see what I mean. More detailed instructions at 365drills.

 

[pt44]

I actually just keep dipping my drill tip in a bucket of water every 5 seconds or so. Works a treat. Though the sponge would stop the water dripping down the wall, so will try that in future. Thanks 365.

Interestingly - touching the drill tip during drilling - the tip is never that hot. A good sign. It doesn't sizzle at all when you dip it in the water.

Paul

 

[Deleted member 1779]

Good response. Yes to begin with we used to tell people to squirt water on the tile with a little water bottle. But then we noticed that cleaning up the debris was also part of the task. That's when we switched to the wet sponge and that is now part of our demo. (25 days at Ideal Home in 2009.... Yes 25 days... Argggg)

But to be honest ANY water application method is good - and you are right the heat build up (or lack of it) is the key when using any system.

We have even been told that installers have used compressed air guns to cool them in areas where no water is allowed. How crazy is that.... And where does all the dust go!

 

[brian c]

SOME GOOD TIPS THERE rICHARD,WE DID SEE YOU DEMONSTRATING THIS AT kbb

 

[MrSpoon]

Good response. Yes to begin with we used to tell people to squirt water on the tile with a little water bottle. But then we noticed that cleaning up the debris was also part of the task. That's when we switched to the wet sponge and that is now part of our demo. (25 days at Ideal Home in 2009.... Yes 25 days... Argggg)

But to be honest ANY water application method is good - and you are right the heat build up (or lack of it) is the key when using any system.

We have even been told that installers have used compressed air guns to cool them in areas where no water is allowed. How crazy is that.... And where does all the dust go!

with a bit of luck into the messy painters eyes

 

[AllurePTS]

To be honest, I just dont fancy holding a wet sponge on to a high speed drill bit ....or dripping water in the chuck of my £250 drill !!! ......I would much rather have the bit in a guide - and constantly soaked in water (it's a better cut and increased life of the bit) ...and I've got both hands on the drill to keep it where it should be, I just have a towel under the drilling area to soak up the mess :yes: ......currently, I use De-Walt or Boa drills for this reason.

I appreciate to some extent that it's personal preference and opinion ......I'm not trying to be smart here mate ....just saying that you must be losing out on some sales simply because you don't supply a daft wee plastic water drip thingy ! .....If there's one supplied, then you can choose to use it or not, but if it's not supplied - you've no choice ! ......so - pedantic gits like me, just buy another brand that does what they want it to !

Regards

 

[cornish_crofter]

I've just taken delivery of the £50 drill set and note that the sizes they have supplied are 6mm 8mm, 16mm, 30mm and 40mm.

Now, I've not used it yet, but since standard wastes are in either 32 or 40mm would it not be a better idea to substitute the 30mm for a 32mm?

Also, having read on here that the guide can wear out quickly I'm contemplating using the guide supplied to make some disposable guides out of old ceramic tile offcuts.

What are your views, especially Richards?

 

[Deleted member 1779]

The thing about our guide plate is that it should last the life of a kit. IE one project. Drills are lasting longer. Try and only use the guide sparingly for say 5 seconds per hole to get started. The guide should give a good life.

Also

----------------------------------

We drilled a range of nineteen holes within a few mm of sizes to test everything

6mm 8mm 10mm 12mm 14mm 16mm 18mm 20mm 22mm 25mm 28mm 30mm 32mm 35mm 40mm 42mm 45mm 48mm 50mm

Then selected as many sizes onto one single drill plate. We could only fit five sizes onto one plate and noted that all the common service pipe sizes fell into either 30mm and 40mm so thats what we picked. With the 32mm waste pipe it looks good fitted into the 40mm socket. The 30mm socket works with either a 22mm copper pipe or a shower inlet.

At the end of the day we had to find a compromise on all the sizes and we even get asked today why we use 16mm for a 15mm copper pipe instead of 18mm to give more room. All the sizes have to earn their place on the drill plate. We believe that having looked at everything that the balance is about fair.

Its subjective and a number of installers have their own opinions of what sizes are best. In fact some of them just buy the single kits as a suppliment. The main sizes that others seem to go for is:
1 x 18mm pack (larger bore for radiator pipes)
1 x 35mm pack (Monoblock taps)
1 x 45mm pack (Bath waste) remember 40mm is the Internal Diameter of waste pipes
1 x 50mm pack (Push buttons for loos)

I think we got it "about right" with the all in one solution - BUT - not 100% !

 

[GazTech]

The thing about our guide plate is that it should last the life of a kit. IE one project. Drills are lasting longer. Try and only use the guide sparingly for say 5 seconds per hole to get started. The guide should give a good life.

Also

----------------------------------

We drilled a range of nineteen holes within a few mm of sizes to test everything

6mm 8mm 10mm 12mm 14mm 16mm 18mm 20mm 22mm 25mm 28mm 30mm 32mm 35mm 40mm 42mm 45mm 48mm 50mm

Then selected as many sizes onto one single drill plate. We could only fit five sizes onto one plate and noted that all the common service pipe sizes fell into either 30mm and 40mm so thats what we picked. With the 32mm waste pipe it looks good fitted into the 40mm socket. The 30mm socket works with either a 22mm copper pipe or a shower inlet.

At the end of the day we had to find a compromise on all the sizes and we even get asked today why we use 16mm for a 15mm copper pipe instead of 18mm to give more room. All the sizes have to earn their place on the drill plate. We believe that having looked at everything that the balance is about fair.

Its subjective and a number of installers have their own opinions of what sizes are best. In fact some of them just buy the single kits as a suppliment. The main sizes that others seem to go for is:
1 x 18mm pack (larger bore for radiator pipes)
1 x 35mm pack (Monoblock taps)
1 x 45mm pack (Bath waste) remember 40mm is the Internal Diameter of waste pipes
1 x 50mm pack (Push buttons for loos)

I think we got it "about right" with the all in one solution - BUT - not 100% !

Well it will do for me Richard, by far the best drilling kit I have encountered...Gaz

 

[cornish_crofter]

I see where you're coming from Richard. Most of my installations are budget installations where the customer is not asking for anything special, in fact most of them use the cheaper porcelein tiles. The kit should do what I need to start off with. It's certainly better than spending ages using the tile saw and nibbler etc.

I once had to cut a square hole inside a tile to accomodate a shaver socket! Using your bits to drill several suitable sized holes with 3 or 4mm radii on the corners, machining out the hole with the 40mm then scoring the tile cold have worked quite well.

Just out of interest, could we just buy the drill guides from you without any drills? I've seen he video with the young lady at the trade stand drilling out a 16mm hole and she did just use the drill guide to get the initial cut.