how tough is it to drill a tank?

[KyleinCT]

I'd like to drill an outlet at the top of a 20 gallon and a 30 gallon. Is it reallly ieasy to crack if you take your time? where's the best place to pick up a good bit? I can't seem to find one anywhere.....

 

[Yaktop]

I'd like to drill an outlet at the top of a 20 gallon and a 30 gallon. Is it reallly ieasy to crack if you take your time? where's the best place to pick up a good bit? I can't seem to find one anywhere.....

do a search, many threads on this subject.

 

[nichols]

It's pretty easy to drill a tank. I've drilled a few now. You just need to keep the bit cool with water and drill at low rpm. You can find bits cheeper, but this is where I bought mine. This bit has drilled a lot of holes between my tanks and tanks of friends and is still in great shape.
http://www.shopsmartxpress.com/AmeriGls/MAIN.htm

 

[me2003]

Here is a good decription with pictures. The drill press is needed for stablity
to prevent cracking. Some times it is difficult to get it to drain at the correct
rate. If anyone has suggestions on how to fix this please post. The problem is
once a syphon starts it can go to fast. If you lose power it takes to long for the syphon to start.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=922792

 

[mloebl]

I've drilled out a handful of tanks now ranging from 10g up thru 75g (one of which was up and running) and it's not bad at all. I've only used a drill press for one of them which was a 10g, and it worked very well. The rest of the tanks I drilled all by hand with the cheap bits from eBay. The only tanks I cracked were the thin ones if I wasn't steady; the thicker tanks tend to be a bit more forgiving. Just take your time, spray it with water when drilling and it shouldn't be bad at all. I'd recommend using an old tank if you have one just to practice to get the hang of it.

-Mike

 

[JohnK]

If you can lay the surface your drilling horizontal, it helps to make a dam out of plumbers putty around the hole so that you can keep the bit submerged in water/coolant (I ordered coolant with my bits, can't say if it makes a difference or not).

I've drilled a few tanks this way and broken none. I've only used a drill press. One did crack between two holes in the same pane of glass, but this was after drilling and because I accidently put a little angled pressure on the bulkhead.

 

[RichConley]

I've never used a drill press, and drilled a couple of tanks with a hand drill now, using a cheap ebay bit. Havent broken a tank yet. Its pretty easy.

(drilled a 20L, and my 58, as well as a whole bunch of scrap glass)