Cutting a bit circular hole in a finished cabinet?

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Digizz

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I've finished my fish tank cabinet but now need to cut a hole in the side to fit a fan. The material is veneered MDF 19mm thick and the hole has to be regular and clean. Hole diameter is approx 120mm.

I'm not sure of the best method to cut this hole that will not damage the rest of the cabinet panel and not tear out any of the veneer. The main difficulty with using a router etc is that it would be pretty difficult to turn the cabinet on its end to have a flat surface to rest a router on.

any ideas?

Thanks, Paul.
 
Digizz

For this kind of job, I cover the area completely with masking tape to help prevent tear-out, mark the hols and cut slowly with a jigsaw and then tidy up with a drum sander bit in a drill running slowly or a half round metal working file. This approach has served me well loads of times


Good luck :wink:
 
You could always rout out a circle on a separate piece of timber and use it to surround the fan's rim if there should be any imperfections with the hole you cut in the side of the panel.

Gill
 
I would still use a router. Rout nearly all the way through and then cut the rest by hand. That way you get a neat hole - clean up if need be with a top bearing bit.

It really isn't that difficult to do this on a vertical surface.
 
Hole saw go part way through then go inside and use the drill hole to centre the saw the other way that way no tearout.... :wink:
 
seaco":v1c0a89z said:
Hole saw go part way through then go inside and use the drill hole to centre the saw the other way that way no tearout.... :wink:

I didn't have a big enough hole saw for that one.

I ended up just using a jigsaw to cut a square with beveled corner type hole - good enough for the fan that the hole was being cut for :)
 

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