Hot hole Cutter

[Treesner]

Anyone know of any good hole cutters that are heated and burn through? Doing grommets in webbing and the internal hold isn’t as strong if it’s not burned before putting the grommet in. Right now I’m just using vice grips, bolt and torch. Not efficient enough for how much I do it 

[nylonRigging]

Would like to see also . I never seen a Hot hole punch that would cauterize . I am sure though someone makes one for large industrial automated mass volume production.
When I do thicker nylons,poly's and webbing stacked on top. After I punch-cut hole,  I will just cauterize the cut inside edge with small hot knife rod .
( for example ) before I pound in a long neck spur grommet . I have a small 40 watt 'solder' wand that I will just roll inside hole to 'lightly melt' cauterize the cut weave inside edge .
.
 

[fredk]

A good few years ago I was doing some webbing in a car upholstery job and thought a hole-burner would speed up the job etc. Until I saw the price of one - about £2500. Mind you, it could be set up to cut and melt the end of the strip as well as doing about up to 10 holes all at the same time. But it wasn't the easiest contraption to set up if the straps were all different, ok if you was doing a hundred the same

I just kept on with a piece of 6mm rod in v/g and a blow lamp. I had 4 pieces of 6mm, each in a pair of v/g and used one as the others were burnt clean and re-heated. I never punched the hole, just melted thru the webbing. But there again I wasn't fitting grommets, I was using screws with cups and flanged headed bolts thru the holes. And I did all the work outside, even in the rain, where there was a goodly breeze

Edit; Try here. I don't see any prices

https://www.thewebcutter.biz/rx75

 

Edited October 19, 2019 by fredk

[Treesner]

On 10/18/2019 at 1:06 PM, nylonRigging said:

Would like to see also . I never seen a Hot hole punch that would cauterize . I am sure though someone makes one for large industrial automated mass volume production.
When I do thicker nylons,poly's and webbing stacked on top. After I punch-cut hole,  I will just cauterize the cut inside edge with small hot knife rod .
( for example ) before I pound in a long neck spur grommet . I have a small 40 watt 'solder' wand that I will just roll inside hole to 'lightly melt' cauterize the cut weave inside edge .
.
 

I've been experimenting with just the hole punch as well but I just hit it with the propane torch or the torch style lighter which melts the edges pretty good. sometimes it changes the hole size a bit so I try to push it on the grommet stem right after applying heat so it pushes on easier 

[Treesner]

On 10/18/2019 at 5:57 PM, fredk said:

A good few years ago I was doing some webbing in a car upholstery job and thought a hole-burner would speed up the job etc. Until I saw the price of one - about £2500. Mind you, it could be set up to cut and melt the end of the strip as well as doing about up to 10 holes all at the same time. But it wasn't the easiest contraption to set up if the straps were all different, ok if you was doing a hundred the same

I just kept on with a piece of 6mm rod in v/g and a blow lamp. I had 4 pieces of 6mm, each in a pair of v/g and used one as the others were burnt clean and re-heated. I never punched the hole, just melted thru the webbing. But there again I wasn't fitting grommets, I was using screws with cups and flanged headed bolts thru the holes. And I did all the work outside, even in the rain, where there was a goodly breeze

Edit; Try here. I don't see any prices

https://www.thewebcutter.biz/rx75

 

what kind of rack did you use to have the vice grips with rod setup to keep it heated? 

was your rod for the holes hollow or solid? I've tried both not sure wha tit like better. the hollow version heats up quicker but it more messy, like the inside drips hot gooe out. the solid rod takes awhile to heat up and harder to push through the hole 

[MikeRock]

In the mid 1970's I was asked to make a hot hole cutter for an Amish harness shop in southern Wisconsin.  I ended up with a 1"x1" by 10" long bar of copper with Osborne hole punches screwed in, just like the ones they used for leather on the clicker.  Had two propane torches with the fan type flame spreaders to heat the blocks/punches.  They had a spare foot operated rivet set that they installed the punch and just a wooden bottom plate to start.  They switched to a copper bar for the bottom too, not heated, just soft.  Adjusting the flames to keep the punches just hot enough to cut and melt the hole edges.  Worked like a champ on their new line of nylon harness parts. Later I made another block set for strap end punches, heated the same way.  They'd c-clamp aluminum angles on the edges to provide guidance for the long 6 or 8 hole setup as the nylon was pretty flimsy compared to leather tugs.  Worked well too.

God bless.

[Professor]

For Nylon webbing a soldering iron should do the trick. I have a wood burning /soldering iron outfit with a number of different replaceable heads in various shapes. Perhaps a piece of tubing of the proper size can be fitted to make a cleaner hole with less mess.

Otherwise just punch the hole first then run the point of the hot iron around the circumference.