I had a go at fitting a sender to the fuel tank I bought off Martin1973 on here a while back. I haven't used a hole saw before so first I thought it would be best to practice on some scrap. The hole saw seemed to turn in a slightly eccentric manner in the drill and it didnt go away no matter how I placed it in the chuck. It seemed to cut ok though if a bit slowly and with a lot of noise and movement from the pillar drill.




£30 Aldi drill and £3.99 (or was it £4.99?) Netto hole saw




Close up.
I was very pleased with the cut. I had read up on a few posts on here and used plenty of oil to lubricate the hole saw. The only way to clamp the tank into position was to kneel on it. (I stood the drill on the floor.) It wasn't going to shift with all my weight on it.

The tank is a bit of a beast as the steel is a little over 2mm thick. Should be fairly safe if not light

I was a bit fortunate with the positioning of the hole as there are two baffles in the tank at third intervals across which I wasn't aware of. I had about half an inch to spare for the pivoting arm on the sender to go through it's full range of motion







Holes drilled for sender







Sender and Cork Gasket



Result

I am starting to feel a bit more like a proper builder (A very slow and lazy one) with little jobs like this getting done. I feel like I'm learning a lot too. I was very pleasantly surprised and chuffed by how the cheap tools and the inexperienced operator faired.

Just felt like I needed to share



[Edited on 10/12/07 by RichieW]

[Edited on 10/12/07 by RichieW]

nothing wrong with some of the cheaper tools

especially when using generally new parts

I bought a load of tools from ALdi absolutely fantastic

the only time I would splash out on more expensive tools is if I was working on old classic cars where the bolts havent moved for 35 years

chris

[Edited on 9/12/07 by zxrlocost]

lots of cheaper tools are fine IMHO, my £9.99 grinders have outlasted bosch & B&D ones, I think the quailty has gone now unless you buy top of the range.

However given the choice I look for imperial 'dads' tools on Ebay etc. I have some cracking tools for relative pennies.

Still good work, a good tool is useless in bad hands....

Regards Mark

The Aldi drill is good. Its got a low speed of 280 rpm which is slower than every other el cheapo pillar drill out there that I've seen which is handy for metal work.

I've been watching American Hotrod all weekend in order to generate some enthusiasm fo getting into the cold garage.

I know I only drilled a hole but I had visions of buggering up a perfectly good fuel tank so I was well pleased when it all went without a hiccup. I said to myself that if it all went disasterously wrong I would just have to weld some sheet metal over the bodged hole and start again.

I get all my tools now from Halfords, well made and a no questions asked guarantee. I even got a replacement foot pump for nothing despite the fact that I had run over it they never even opened the box.

I like to buy heavily used tools such as grinders from B&Q for similar reasons. I've got through a couple of grinders during the build and its nice to be able to get in the car on a sunday afternoon the moment it breaks and get a replacement at the service desk without any hassle.

I know B&Q are rip off mechants but if you are getting two or three replacements then its worth the extra.

I wouldn't go for an unbranded B+Q grinder- the last one I had was made out of "engineering plastic" (IE plastic)... After some moderately enthusiastic grinding, the plastic melted, jamming the bearing and resulting in large amounts of acrid smoke... Of course it was 6pm on a Sunday, the wife was out with the girls and I had three hours were I couldn't work on the car because I hadn't got a grinder.... I would have happily paid 30 quid to rent one- I made sure I remembered that when I bought a new one and bought a good'un for 20 quid extra!!

ps- looks a proper job btw!!

Cheers!!

The trick to getting a decent hole with a hole saw in a hand held drill, is to drill a hole with a drill the same size as the one in the hole saw.
Then remove the drill in the hole saw and fit a steel dowel (piece of drill rod/silver steel is ideal) of the same diameter.
This will stop the drill acting as a milling cutter and enlarging the hole, thus keeping the saw on centre.
HTH.

Cunning idea Mr. Confused, I will remember that.

Good work on the fuel tank, I remember the feeling with the first few jobs I did that worked

quote:

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Originally posted by Confused but excited.
The trick to getting a decent hole with a hole saw in a hand held drill, is to drill a hole with a drill the same size as the one in the hole saw.
Then remove the drill in the hole saw and fit a steel dowel (piece of drill rod/silver steel is ideal) of the same diameter.
This will stop the drill acting as a milling cutter and enlarging the hole, thus keeping the saw on centre.
HTH.

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such a simple idea.. simple but elegant!!