Subscriber Discussion

Square Hole Saws For Drywall - Worth The Price?

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Brian Karas
Nov 16, 2016
IPVM

Kickstarter project: Square hole saw, looks like a US version of the UK Quadsaw.

Demo:

The Quadsaw is preorder for ~$250, no price yet for the square hole saw kickstarter.

These seem like good time-savers, but are they worth it for the price? How many installers here routinely cut holes in drywall for old work boxes?

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Michael Miller
Nov 16, 2016

If they could make it so it catches all the dust it would be worth the money.

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Ari Erenthal
Nov 17, 2016

Absolutely not!

What you need is a 'push' style drywall saw. It has teeth facing inward, so that it cuts while you're pushing the saw in, not pulling it out. All (well, most) of the drywall dust ends up inside the wall, not on the carpet.

To get a perfect cut every time, mark the spot with a template that has a built in level. This lets you cut only enough for an old work bracket.

I can't imagine what the market is for this product.

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Amos Wipf
Nov 17, 2016

Or if you don't want to carry the template you can simply use the four holes in the corners of the bracket to mark the the spot. Hard to imagine carrying around a bulky square hole cutter that saves you ~30 seconds. The other thing I don't like is when doing old work you have to "feel" any existing wires you might be cutting. That's why you don't use a sawzall.

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Brian Karas
Nov 17, 2016
IPVM

The other thing I don't like is when doing old work you have to "feel" any existing wires you might be cutting.

Agreed, however these square hole cutters may be better in some cases because it looks like the blades don't go through the drywall by more than a little bit.

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Ari Erenthal
Nov 17, 2016

But the template has a built in level! You cannot seriously be saying that taking out a torpedo level, drawing a line, making sure the bracket lines up with the line, then using the dots to mark the square is faster than taking out the template, setting the bubble, and marking the hole.

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Undisclosed
Nov 17, 2016

I agree with both of you on this. Would be a good tool for a drywall installer though. Mark the dots, check it with a torpedo level and cut. Less than a minute.

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Jon Dillabaugh
Nov 17, 2016
Pro Focus LLC

I can't imagine running to my truck to grab a tool that large just to cut in a few holes per job. You would need to be cutting hundreds of holes before this would be worth lugging around. The only tool it replaces is a wall knife.

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Ethan Ace
Nov 17, 2016

I think for camera jobs it's overkill just based on the small number of devices. Back when I did network install, though, it would have been amazing. We were often doing 3-4 drops per room, so cutting boxes in adds up fast. You could easily do 100 in a day.

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Undisclosed Integrator #1
Nov 18, 2016

Why would you bother with that?

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