Need Drilling Help Please! Drill is Stuck and Won't Turn,

[asm129]

I'm drilling my acrylic tank right now. I'm drilling a 1 1/2" hole in the top of the tank with a hole saw and my hole saw got stuck in the acrylic! I put water around the hole, tried to drill slowly and it got stuck. The acrylic is about 1/2 " thick. When I push the trigger of the drill, the hole saw won't turn, but the drill and my hand moves from the force.

What should I do?? Please help. Luckily there are no cracks in the acrylic. It's just the drill is stuck there for now.

 

[swk]

reverse it?

 

[Nate Dogg]

just a thought but more power or give it a yank up to pull it lose. I take no responsibility to either of these unless it works.

 

[Egon]

Unplug the drill and rock it back and forth until it comes free. You overheated the acrylic. Once the drill is free clean the hole saw teeth. When teeth are clean have some one spray the hole saw and acrylic while you drill. Every 30 seconds to a minute stop drilling and clean the teeth again. Just keep doing this until your done.

 

[skjl47]

Unplug the drill and rock it back and forth until it comes free. You overheated the acrylic. Once the drill is free clean the hole saw teeth. When teeth are clean have some one spray the hole saw and acrylic while you drill. Every 30 seconds to a minute stop drilling and clean the teeth again. Just keep doing this until your done.

Hello; This sounds right. I have cut or drilled various plastics and it does tend to melt from the friction generated. Unfortunately it can reset quite hard when it cools. I have not gotten a bit or blade stuck, but the melted plastic has stuck onto them and can be hard to remove. If rocking the drill back and forth does not free the bit, unchuck the bit from the drill and use a plier or vice grip to twist the shaft of the bit. There may be a risk of cracking the plastic surrounding the hole as it may have somewhat fused the bit to the rest of the plastic. If you manage to free the bit, try the suggested proceedure and drill only a little at a time and pull the bit out to clean off the plastic. You may also have an underpowered drill for the job which is why it froze to begin with. The drill a bit and then clean may allow the use of a small drill. Good luck.

 

[asm129]

Thanks for the tips everyone especially Egon. I followed his advice and was able to get the hole saw out and finish drilling it without any problems. The key thing for me was stopping to clean the teeth of the hole saw and pouring water around the hole being cut. Doing both helped it cut much easier.

 

[cichlid_king]

This happened to one of my friends too. He just rocked it back and forth to get it out and clean the teeth on the hole saw and it worked very well for him too.