Drilling a Hole in Gatorboard

Not familiar with gatorboard, but anytime I've needed to drill a hole as large as 7/16" precisely located, I've always used a much smaller drill bit to drill a pilot hole.  Once the pilot hole is drilled, the larger hole can be drilled without the larger bit "walking" on the surface of the material.

Try a piece of wood on each side, sandwich the gatorboard between the wood.

If it is thin material, a regular twist drill will give you a triangular hole.

Is that what you are getting? If that is the case, you need a drill which is cutting the hole along with the center point.

We agree!

 

A couple other suggestions to supplement Mr. Miller's recommendation...

 

-A 7/16" Forstner bit will give a cleaner, more accurate bore.

-Alternatively, a more common 3/8" Forstner bit can be used if you have a 1/2" tapered (+sharp!) reamer to open the bore to 7/16",

-Since you don't have a drill press (better), use a variable speed drill motor and feed the Forstner bit through the sandwich (esp. Gatorboard) slowly.

 

FWIW, always...

 

KD

Lima,

Correct…triangular and it really messes up the foam between the Gatorboard sheets. I didn’t even know about a Forstner Bit. I tried a Dremel with a tapered stone. It worked pretty good. Had to drill a small starting hole.

George (G3)


> On Apr 21, 2015, at 1:22 PM, O Gauge Railroading On Line Forum <alerts@hoop.la> wrote:
>

if you want a nice clean hole, drill a 1/8 pilot hole through and use a sharp auger bit like this to score the hole from both sides. you nay need an exacto knife to finish the cut through the foam.

 

 

 

It looks like this...

 

 

 

They're found at most of the home improvement stores in the tools section...better hardware stores, too.  Somewhat pricey compared with a stand HS bit, but for a clean round hole, they're hard to beat.

 

Just trying to help....

 

KD

I tried a 3/8" auger bit, because I had one (duh, never even thought of that). Drilled a 1/8" pilot hole, but used a pin hole to mark the exact place. Then manually turned the auger into both sides. Lo and behold, I got a perfect hole. When I took the bit out, I pushed the hole through, foam and all. Perfect. "Wow", says me. Now tomorrow I want to visit the local hardware and look for a 7/16" Forstner and Auger...then I'll decide. Might try both. 

 

I'm mounting these push-button switches on 3/16" Gatorboard (black), then sandwiching the square part and ribbon cable with grooves cut in the sandwich, which is actually Gatorboard. I'm also experimenting with cutting the square part for the switch body behind the hole I made in the Gatorboard. A N Y suggestions are sooooo welcome.

 

 

 

George (G3)

P.S. Thanks dkdkrd and JohnS

a forstner is designed for flat bottom holes, so the side cutters are not as deep as an auger. an auger is ideal for what you want to do with it's deeper side cutters, it will cut through the surface before the shaving cutter contacts the surface.

 

 

I live in Florida, and don't know what "Gatorboard" is??

Paul

Paul -

Gatorboard is a lightweight, rigid display board with a polystyrene core and white surface. The core is very dense and firm and the surface is a wood fiber veneer laminate impregnated with resin for water resistance.  It is not inexpensive, but it won't warp when painted with latex paint.  Less expensive foam board products that you might find in a craft store will warp when using latex paint.

 

Bob

Gatorboard or Gatorfoam is available in lots of different sizes, plus three colors. I usually get mine from this company as they package it for shipping very, very well.

 

http://www.foamboardsource.com...oams--gatorfoam.html

 

It's very tough, but requires patience to cut it. 

 

JohnS: The auger bit works perfect. I just turned the bit by hand enough to penetrate half of the Gatorboard on each side. Then a perfect hole was the result. Thanks much.

 

George (G3)