Annular Cutters

Annular Cutters

An annular cutter cuts only a ring of material at the edge of the hole and leaves a solid slug in the center. That makes it much faster than a twist drill for large holes in steel plate, beams and frames, with less heat and a cleaner, burr-free hole. Annular cutters are normally run in a magnetic drill press, though some sizes are made for threaded-arbor drills.

This category includes Milwaukee Steel Hawg threaded cutters from 15/16 in. to 6 in., Milwaukee carbide-tipped annular cutters with a 3/4 in. shank for hard and abrasive steel, and Blair Rotabroach and Karbon X cutter kits.

Use cutting fluid, run at the speed recommended for the cutter diameter, and let the pilot pin eject the slug at the end of the cut.