Holes in a square pipe. How to make a hole in a pipe

During the construction of pipelines, laying sewers and other work, it periodically becomes necessary to make a hole in a pipe of a certain diameter and shape. On the one hand, this simple work, which can be done by novice craftsmen on their own, on the other hand, any process has its own nuances and difficulties, which it is advisable to know about in advance.

Preparing for work

To drill a hole in a pipe, you need to:

prepare the necessary equipment;
study the nuances of the process to avoid mistakes.

Necessary equipment

Cutting holes in pipes is done using:

a regular drill or a special one professional tool. A special machine is used by people whose profession is related to the installation of pipelines. For home purposes, a drill with a speed control function and a set of various drills is sufficient;

vise for fixing the pipe;
a file that can be used to widen the hole if necessary;
hammer. Using this tool, holes of small diameter are punched;
wooden block or a homemade template that fixes the drill in a given position.

When cutting holes, do not forget about basic safety precautions. It is recommended to wear protective gloves and goggles when drilling pipes.

Nuances

Determine the type of material used to make the pipe. Each material has its own characteristics that must be taken into account.
Find out the thickness of the pipe wall. The larger this parameter, the more powerful the equipment required. When drilling a through hole, it is necessary to take into account outside diameter pipes.

To give the drill additional stability, use a wooden block or a special template:
- if a block is used, then it is necessary to drill a hole of the required diameter in it and secure the finished structure at the location of the hole in the pipe. The width of the block (approximately 50 mm) will fix the drill and will not allow it to deviate from the given direction;
- a homemade template is also made from a wooden block. The main difference between the designs is that the template contains several prepared holes of different diameters and is equipped with a fastening vice, and the block must be prepared for each hole separately.

when drilling metal and cast iron, the drill may overheat, so it is recommended to periodically moisten it with cold water;
You can use only sharp drills that are most suitable for a particular material.

Taking into account all the mentioned nuances will allow you to quickly and efficiently make the necessary holes.

Small diameter holes

General drilling diagram

Drilling holes in a metal pipe, including profile pipe made of metal, produced according to the following scheme:

the pipe is securely clamped in a vice;

if it is necessary to cut several holes, then preliminary marking of the pipe is carried out. To do this, use a tape measure and a marker;
a prepared block or template is installed in place of the hole;
the drill is wetted in water to prevent it from overheating;
drilling is done.

When working with metal pipes It is recommended to use the following as additional lubrication and protection against overheating of the drill:

machine oil for steel pipes;
soap solution for copper products.

Features of working on cast iron pipes

Drilling holes in cast iron pipe requires:

compliance with all safety standards. Since small chips may form during the operation, in addition to protecting your eyes and hands, it is recommended to use a respirator or gauze bandage. In addition, the room where work is carried out must have high-quality ventilation;
drill a hole in sewer pipe made of cast iron is recommended for low speed drills. The power of the equipment can be gradually increased;
for drilling optimal choice There will be drills with pobedite tips.

Features of working on plastic pipes

Cutting holes in plastic pipes, for example, in drainage pipe– this is the easiest task. This does not require special equipment. All work can be done with a simple drill.

Drilling has its own characteristics:

It is necessary to cut holes at minimum drill speeds, since under the influence high temperature the pipe may be deformed;
If smooth and neat holes are required, then after drilling it is necessary to refine them with a small file or a sharp knife.

Drilling large holes

Now let's look at how to cut a hole in a pipe for a pipe or how to make holes of large diameters. To do this you need:

fix the pipe and apply markings to it;
according to the scheme described above, drill a hole of small diameter;
put a special attachment on the drill for drilling large holes;

insert the central drill into the prepared hole;
Carefully, first at low speeds of the tool, make a hole of the required diameter.

When working with attachments, the drill must be kept in a strictly vertical position. Due to the slightest shift of the equipment, a hole will appear irregular shape and at an angle.

If a hole ranging in size from 5 mm to 10-15 mm is required, then the use of special nozzles is not required. It is enough to first drill a small hole, and then use a larger diameter drill to bring the hole to the desired size.

Cutting square holes

Square holes are most often cut in square pipe for connecting sections into a finished structure. There are several ways in which such holes can be made. The first is this:

the area and dimensions of the future hole are marked on the pipe section;
the first stage is cutting out a round hole of small diameter according to the diagram presented above;
Next, a drill or nozzle of a larger diameter is selected that best fits the size of the circle inscribed in the square;
a round hole of large diameter is cut out;
using files different sizes a square (rectangular) section is made from a round hole.

The second method is to use a special attachment instead of files. The preliminary stages completely coincide with points 1 – 4 of the instructions above. The prepared hole requires minimal modification.

The article discusses a method for drilling pipes without special equipment. How the drilling machine works is shown in the video.

So, drilling holes in metal, cast iron or plastic pipes is not a daunting task. If you have an ordinary drill with various drills and attachments, you can make holes of different diameters and geometric shapes in a short time.

Due to the features construction project Often it is necessary to make design changes to some attributes. Thus, pipes pass through the entire building; they often require additional processing, fine-tuning the shape, etc. Drilling is one of the labor-intensive procedures. It is mainly necessary to make holes in places where their displacement is unacceptable. What to do?

Making holes in pipes

How to eliminate difficulties

To drill a pipe, it is clamped in a vice. This reduces the likelihood of the hole moving. Core is used in advance. With its help, a small depression is made in the place where the drilling will be done. The task will become even easier if you use a wooden block in the process. A little trimming is enough. Drilling is done through it.

When the drill touches the surface of the pipe, the block will guide it, eliminating the slightest displacement. This approach is simply necessary if the hole is planned to be made through. The material the drill is made of also plays an important role. It is welcome if the tool is diamond. This drilling is more efficient, since the super-strong surface will go inside faster. This will take a few seconds (depending on the thickness of the pipe).

About diamond drills

The effectiveness of diamond tools is undeniable. With their help, the holes are smooth and located strictly in the intended place. Such drilling is considered a high-tech process, as a special machine is used. This approach allows you to forget about excessive dust in the room, which is a fairly common occurrence when working with a simple drill.

Using diamond drills, the noise level is reduced. The tool operates quietly thanks to special element for drilling. Pipes are drilled without additional pressure, which is often necessary to achieve greater efficiency. This element is a replaceable crown.

There is no way in construction without diamonds!

The durability of diamond tools allows you to get work done faster. Holes made with a heavy-duty drill bit require no further finishing. Pipes can be made of any material, such as copper, plastic or cast iron. An ordinary drill does not allow you to do the job perfectly.

Before you make a hole in a pipe, you should familiarize yourself with the appropriate techniques that allow you to solve this problem without the use of special equipment. In this article we will tell you about existing methods, helping to make holes in pipes made of various materials. You will learn how to make a hole the required form, and also subsequently squander it.

Tool

In order to complete the work, you will need to prepare the following tool:

drill (electric or manual type);
clamping vice;
special marking tool;
core, hammer and “round” file.

To work with metal pipe blanks, in addition to the items listed above, you will need high-carbon steel drills, as well as coolant. In addition, drills equipped with carbide tips can be used.

Let us immediately note that the drilling procedure without the use of special equipment is quite simple. All that is required of you is complete concentration and mandatory compliance with the relevant safety requirements.

Work of this type is carried out, as a rule, in a garage or in a special utility room (in a home workshop, for example). To avoid injury when drilling holes, you will need to use protective glasses and thick gloves. In addition, be sure to ensure that the drill bits are sharp enough and securely fastened in the drill chuck.

Note! You can drill both metal and wood with the same drill, you just need to sharpen it at a different angle.

Work order

Before drilling a hole in a pipe, the following operations should be performed:

secure the pipe section in a vice;
apply appropriate markings to the drilling site;
then in the center of the future hole, using a core, you should knock out a small depression (as they say, “punch” the drilling point). This operation is necessary so that the drill does not move to the side during operation and is fixed in the center of the marking;
Once all these operations are completed, you can proceed to carefully and leisurely drilling the hole, starting with small diameter drills and gradually changing them to thicker ones.

During operation, the drill must be kept strictly vertical, otherwise the drill may simply break under the influence of lateral loads. To accurately adjust the diameter of the hole, you can use a round file.

Note! In order to make a square hole in the pipe, first make the usual round hole, which can then be shaped with a file square shape. Note that this method is quite labor-intensive and will require you to be very careful when working with metal.

When carrying out a similar operation with plastic or composite pipes, the easiest way is to use a steel rod rectangular shape. As such a rod is driven into a round hole, the latter acquires a square shape, after which it can be removed from the pipe blank. The irregularities formed during punching are subsequently removed using a regular file.

Large diameter holes in plastic pipes can be cut with a crown.

And in conclusion, we draw your attention to one more point characteristic of the type of operations we are considering. Since the drill becomes very hot when preparing a hole in the metal, coolant (water or waste oil) should be periodically added to the drilling site.

Video

An interesting way of drilling through holes in small diameter pipes is shown in the video:

If you need to constantly make holes in pipes, you can make a jig for drilling holes:

Those who are involved in “homemade” creativity know how difficult it can sometimes be to drill a hole in the wall of a pipe or drill a round rod. And preferably - strictly according to its diameter. If the part is large, you can still somehow sharpen it, punch it, or make a deep mark with a file. What if the part has a diameter of only 10-15 mm? Or you need to make a hole in a thin tube, which is not only pierced, but even clamped. And even drilling machine does not help - the part is not fixed and the drill can “play” to the side at any moment. Either it will break itself, or the part will be damaged.

I suggest making simple templates so that you can easily drill any round part, be it a metal rod or a thin-walled tube.

The first template is a wooden parallelepiped from hard rocks tree.

Along it long side made through hole, into which a part (tube or rod) is inserted. And perpendicular to this hole, strictly along the axis, holes are drilled in the side of the template different diameters(for different drills).

The picture shows holes on only one face, but in fact you can use the other three. You just need to make sure that large holes were opposite large ones, “neighboring” in diameter. Since during through drilling the template itself will be slightly drilled out.

Since the parts vary in diameter, several drilling templates will be required. When the tube is slightly smaller in diameter than the template hole, it can be slightly wedged so that it is securely fixed in the template.

But you can also make a universal template, with a variable diameter of the fixed part. In addition, it will allow you to drill holes not necessarily in the center, but offset, and even mill them lateral surface round part. For example, in order to subsequently make a cut into a pipe.

The template is like a double clamp, a U-shaped frame with adjusting bolts on both sides. To ensure that the part is not damaged by bolts and is fixed more securely, metal spacer jaws are used.

The template body itself can be made from a thick duralumin channel or hardwood. A series of holes are drilled into the template body to drill the part.

The part is clamped opposite the holes in the desired position and drilled or milled. In this case, they do not use excessive force, but use correctly sharpened drills that match the material of the part.

The same template can be used both as a clamp and as a mini-vise. For example, they can hold parts when gluing. All in all, a universal tool. Do it, you won't regret it.

By the way, even marking a round part correctly is not so easy! Especially the small one. You can't press a ruler against it.

Another device will help with this - a template. He is U-shaped design from a small board (plate) and a pair of dowels inserted into it. A hole for a marker is made in the plate exactly in the middle between the edges of the dowels. The device and principle of operation are clear from the figure.

Mark the part like this. Having placed the template over the part, it is pressed with dowels to its side surfaces. No matter what diameter the part has, the marker will still end up strictly in the middle. This is what they call a “template in half.” And they use it not only for marking round parts, but also any other oblong ones. For example, when you need to split the board in half.

Author: elremont from 08/19/2017

This is a drill centering device. You can find one on Ebay. It costs about 6 pounds. This is very useful if you ever need to drill accurately across a shaft or any other round piece of material. There are several ways to mark and drill the center in this direction. If you want to drill the center this way, then The best way to do this is to use a bell striker which I covered in another video. You'll have to spend £6 on it, but it's worth it because it can save you a lot of time and they're quite accurate. So if you ever need to drill out the center of anything round, such as a round rod, a piece of tubing, or a piece of round wood, then you can easily do it using a jig like this. Obviously you will need a drill bit and you will need to make sure that if the base is movable it is secure before drilling.
This will suit different diameters. And I have a cylinder with a diameter of approximately 20 millimeters. Now you will see that it will work.
Absolutely no problem. This will also work on larger diameter pipes. So, to use this, we need to clamp it into the drill press chuck.
Then take a vice and secure the part in it. In this example I will drill through this aluminum tube. I will secure it, ensuring that it does not move. The pipe is now firmly clamped in the vise. Now you just need to move it onto the workpiece. And you can see that there is a line in the center and a line on the shaft. We need to touch both sides of the search center and make sure the line in the center is aligned with the center above. If you click on it, you will see that everything is aligned perfectly. If you zoomed in, you could see that the two marks are not aligned, and that's not right. We need them to be perfectly aligned. Once we set to this position, we will know that we are exactly in the center of this tube. So I'll secure the vise in this position to stop the movement. Then we'll just check it again to make sure the vise is not moved and everything is in the correct position. Now we can release the cartridge. Now I'll insert the center drill. And this will ensure the correct approach for drilling. Now I can put on safety glasses. And we can start drilling. And then we can continue drilling the hole. You can now remove the center drill. Then we can install regular drill. And we can continue drilling the hole. And I just want to say thank you to several people who translated the titles and descriptions of some of my videos.
This is really helpful. Therefore, many thanks to those people who did this. Then remove it from the vice. You can see that we have a hole going through the center of the part. So it's worth spending £6 on this very useful device if you need to drill into the center of any round parts such as a car shaft or the like. So I thought I'd take a little time to show you this. This is a very useful inexpensive kit. I would like to thank you for watching this video. Subscribe if you haven't already.