Drilling Techniques

[YamahaSteve]

Just wondering if any of you have tried some of the more DIY drilling techniques on your tanks. I am interested in how you did it, the materials you used and how it turned out.

1. Copper pipe and grit with a drill motor.
2. Dremel tool with diamond cutter.

I am looking at possibly getting a free 75g tank but it totally undrilled and I want to put in an overflow system and maybe a closed loop circulation system.

[Geoff]

i would not use the copper pipe method. it would be very difficult to remove all traces of the copper crit when you are done drilling. Cu is very poisonous in the SW environment.

i just trilled a 75, a 20, and a 55. i actually sucked it up and bought the $100 diamond tipped bit. this was mainly due to the fact that i was going to drill the tanks while they are occupied. it went very well. i had my wife squirt water while drilling the entire time to keep it cool. by the end the last hole i drilled only took about a minute. granted it was expensive, but it was a nice clean hole. the bulkheads fit very nicely.

i used my cordless drill. i had a cheap portable drill press brace. this allowed me to just push on the drill and keep it from walking on me. i just clamped the brace to the tank then start drilling.

G~

[yousuredo]

do you have any idea how long the bit will last (how many holes you can drill) with one bit?

[Geoff]

for the diamond bits, it says 30-40 holes before wearing out. i was only planning on doing 10 at most.

G~

[Melix]

I did some drilling on acrylic with regular old hole saws in a 13.5 v cordless. If you're careful the holes will be nice and smooth. Just remember to go slow and drill from both sides to prevent the edges from chipping out. No idea how you'd go about drilling glass though. No experience with it nor any conversations about it.

Mike

[wanareef]

I have used those diamond coated burrs form Harbor Frieght - 15 for $6.00 for a glass tank. Took about 5 mins a hole using two burrs, a cone to start then a round or bullet to finish. Used up a total of 3 bits. I used a Foredom Handpiece - use for jewerly making. A dremel would work but slower.

[aka_bigred]

I drilled my 40G sump/fuge with the dremel technique and it worked really well. For the $8 bit set, and some patience, you can't beat this method. You'll want to use cutting oil instead of water to cool the bit while cutting.

I put some pics and a walkthrough up in the TCMAS section.

Here's the link:
http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=35837