Cutting holes in dash bezel?

[gotchamel]

Seems like the dash bezels would crack easily, would a hole saw be the preferred tool in cutting more gauge holes?Thanks.

[oldblue1968chevy]

I cut some holes in my old bezel for guages, used a hole saw

all was well except 1 hole toward th edge alreayd had a small crack, it just made it worse ...

[gotchamel]

Originally Posted by oldblue1968chevy

I cut some holes in my old bezel for guages, used a hole saw

all was well except 1 hole toward th edge alreayd had a small crack, it just made it worse ...

Thanks, it will be a new bezel so I won't have to deal with an existing crack.

[hugger6933]

if you can use a slower speed on the drill that will keep it from heating the plastic too much

[special-K]

I recently dried a hole for a factory manual choke cable under the wiper switch on my '71 Custom/30 tow truck using a paddle bit and it went just fine. A hole saw would be even better.

[TripleNickel]

I wonder if the tip from the "This Old House" show a few weeks ago might help.

They needed to cut through aluminum siding to install a vent and one of the 'guru' used a hole saw... but had the drill running in REVERSE to minimize the chance of tear-out.

[special-K]

Originally Posted by TripleNickel

I wonder if the tip from the "This Old House" show a few weeks ago might help.

They needed to cut through aluminum siding to install a vent and one of the 'guru' used a hole saw... but had the drill running in REVERSE to minimize the chance of tear-out.

That's a pretty good tip to play it safe,but certainly not necessary,especially here. .019-.024 aluminum siding is thin material and metal,which can bend if snagged. Cutting plastic is handled the same as wood in most cases. And,the teeth on a hole saw are identical to those on a circular saw plywood blade,which is what I used,frontwards,to cut thousands of squares of aluminum siding with no issues. People would turn a crosscut blade backwards to cut aluminum siding when all they had to do is use the right blade.