The 8 Best Hole Saws for Metal of 2026

This Diablo set is the biggest spend in this guide, and it's the one we point to when someone is done buying saws one at a time. Ten cups run from 7/8 inch to 2-9/16 inch, a single Snap-Lock Plus mandrel drives all of them, and the case carries the pilot bit and two adaptor nuts. That's a working range in a box you can carry to a job.

Depth is what earns it the space. At 2-3/8 inches the cups cut through a 2-by in one pass — siding, a stud, a doubled header — where a standard cup makes you flip the work and hope both holes line up. We also rate the changeover: release the collar, swap the cup, keep drilling, with no hex key lost in the sawdust.

The variable-pitch teeth run smoother than a constant-tooth cup, with less chatter on entry, and that's a difference you feel in your wrists after the twentieth hole. Plugs eject without a tool, so a run of holes keeps moving instead of stopping for a screwdriver.

Buy one spare pilot bit when you buy the kit. It wears before the cups do, and a missing pilot parks the whole case until a replacement arrives — the one part that can take a very good set out of service.

Stainless is where bi-metal saws go to die: the teeth work-harden the surface, the edge dulls, and you finish the hole with a file. The EZARC cutter is built for that job — tungsten carbide teeth, a 7/8-inch cutting diameter, and a spring-loaded pilot that ejects the plug on the way out. A wrench and a second pilot bit come in the bag, so there's no arbor to source.

This is the one we hand someone cutting a stainless sink or a truck panel. Carbide holds an edge where high-speed steel gives up, and the cut comes out round and burr-free enough to skip the cleanup pass. Oil and a slow drill turn it into a two-minute hole. Run it fast and dry and you'll round the teeth off before you're through the first one.

Carbide is hard and brittle in the same breath: keep the cup square to the work, run the drill slow, and let the teeth cut. Tip it to hurry a hole and you'll chip a tooth, and a chipped tooth doesn't cut stainless anymore. Oil helps more than pressure does.

If your drill lives in a shed and your hole sizes are whatever the job turns out to be, this is the kit to start with. We like it as a first kit rather than a last one: eleven bi-metal cups from 3/4 inch to 2-1/2 inch, two mandrels, three pilot bits, a hex key, and a case that keeps the sizes findable. Having every size on hand ends the drive-to-the-store cycle that makes small projects drag.

The teeth are hard and the cuts come out clean in plywood, PVC, and thin sheet. Two mandrels and three pilot bits is the detail that matters more than the saw count — a bent pilot doesn't park the whole set, and swapping cups doesn't mean re-chucking from scratch every time.

The largest cups want a half-inch chuck, so a 3/8-inch drill means adapting or skipping your bigger sizes. In metal, slow the drill down and clear the chips often; that's how these cups last long enough to be worth the shelf space.

Three sixteenths of an inch is the ceiling here, and it's the number to check before you order: these carbide cutters are built for sheet — stainless, mild steel, iron, copper, brass — up to that thickness and no more. Within it they cut like a punch, in the three sizes that cover most conduit and panel work: 7/8, 1-1/8, and 1-3/8 inch, with a spare pilot bit and a rust-proof case.

The split-point pilot is the detail we appreciate most. It bites instead of skating, so you can start a hole on a curved panel or a rounded box without a center punch, and the saw doesn't walk across your layout line. The integrated flange stops the cutter from diving once it breaks the surface, which is what saves the back side of a panel from tearing out.

For a shop being wired or a barn being fitted with conduit, this is the case that stays in the truck. It's not a woodworking set and it won't replace a bi-metal kit for general work — it's what you open when the material is stainless and the hole has to be right the first time. Carbide doesn't bend, so keep the cutter square and let it cool between holes; do that and the tips last.

Twenty-eight pieces is the answer this kit gives to the Diablo case, and the trade runs the other way: more sizes, less depth. Milwaukee's ice-hardened bi-metal covers small pilots up through the big cups, with the arbors and adaptors to drive them, all in one box. If your work moves between trades — a little electrical, a little plumbing, a gate to hang — having the odd size on hand is worth more than a deeper cup.

The teeth are Matrix II bi-metal, ice hardened for longer life, and the saw bodies are deep enough to bury a 2-by in one pass. Wood with nails, sheet metal, laminate: the cuts come out clean, and the tooth count is aggressive enough to move quickly without grabbing.

Count the arbors and pilot bits against the contents list while the return window is open. A set this size lives or dies on every adaptor being in the box, and a missing nut strands the cups it drives until a replacement shows up.

Our read: this is a volume kit for someone who wants one case and will keep it sorted. The teeth are the reason to buy; the storage is the reason to add a drawer divider or a canvas bag and treat the case as a shelf box at home.

Six inches is not a bigger version of a 2-inch saw; it's a different tool with different rules. The VIKITON cuts 6-inch holes in plywood, drywall, plastic, and thin metal — cornhole boards, recessed light cans, speaker cutouts, the tube opening on a feeder — and it comes with the arbor, a spare pilot bit, and a hex key. At 152 mm across it removes a lot of material every revolution, so it wants a drill with torque and a hand that lets the teeth work.

Deep gullets between the teeth are the right call at this size: chips need somewhere to go or the cup binds and the arbor takes the strain. Our advice is to run it slow. A 6-inch cup spinning fast in thin steel burns teeth and snatches the drill; at low speed with light pressure it goes through a board and leaves a clean edge.

The stainless exclusion is the one thing to plan around — this saw is for thin mild steel and wood, not a sink or a truck panel. Everything else about it reads as a specialist: it's the least expensive saw here, the arbor is in the box, and it earns its place the first time you need a hole nothing else in your shop can make.

For someone who wants carbide teeth without paying per-cutter prices, this is the kit: ten TCT cutters from 5/8 inch to 2-1/8 inch, a titanium-plated pilot bit for each, and a case that keeps the sizes separated. It covers the diameters a general shop actually meets, from grommet holes up to a 2-inch pipe pass-through.

The three-blade tooth pattern is why these cut as fast as they do — an outer and an inner edge scribe the circle while the middle tooth clears, so the cutter doesn't skate on entry. In mild steel and aluminum they do what carbide is supposed to do: a round, clean hole without the blueing and file work a dull bi-metal saw leaves behind.

Stainless is a maybe rather than a promise. These tips will get through a thin panel with oil and a slow drill, and they'll shed teeth if you push them. Keep the speed down, flood the cut with oil, and let the cup finish the hole before you lift it.

What you're buying is coverage, not longevity. The cutters are consumables — when one loses its tips you replace that size instead of the set, and the range means you're not buying a whole kit to get a 1-3/4-inch hole again. For a shop cutting occasional holes in mild steel that math works; for daily stainless, the Klein cutters are the better spend.