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Last Updated: , Created: Sunday, January 14th, 2001

Drilling through a procelin soap dish

This rather fancy bathroom renovation had the dumbest soap dish I ever saw -- no drain holes and it was installed in a bath/shower. So of course the soap would float and melt away. The renovation was new and we thought we would probably do some damage to the marble on the wall if we tried to remove it -- so we decided to drill a hole. There are carbide drills for glass and ceramic, and there are diamond hole saws that would have done the job. But I decided to try a special carving bit for the RotoZip tool that would allow me to not only drill a hole but to enlarge or shape it, because the tool will cut on the side as well as on the tip. I got quite a surprise when I found that this dumb soap dish was extremely well made -- the technician and the designer just weren't working together the day they invented this thing. I anticipated that it might be hollow, but no, it was solid, rock solid. But I kept at it despite burning out one drill bit and finally succeeded in getting through. Actually shaping the hole after I cut through was much easier than cutting through with this bit.

The nice part of the job was giving a workout to the new RotoZip tool that has a variable speed, a removable handle, headlights, and a dust blower all built in.


Keywords: Drills, Techniques, Bathroom

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