Tub Hole Help

I bought a soldering iron from walmart recently to poke some holes in the 41qt tubs of my new rack and I suck at it! I attempted to do it for one of the tubs and eventhough they came out pretty ok they just weren't good looking. In the process the melting plastic was everywhere and I burned myseld trying to get the excess burning plastic from drying and staying where I made the hole.

Do you have skills making nice clean looking holes in your tubs? PLEASE, teach me the ways of the force!

How I do it:


Turn your tub so that the side you're putting the hole in is flat and the iron will go straight down. Place the tip of the iron where you want the hole and firmly, but carefully push down until it goes all the way through. Immediately bring it straight back up.

There WILL be a little "lip" of melted plastic around your hole. There will very likely be little "strings" of melted plastic that stick like spider webs to the iron. All par for the course. I just ignore the strings and move on to the next hole. If you move quickly and deliberately, you'll have very little "mess" left behind...and the imperfections you're bound to have don't usually show up in photos...which is why everyone's looks so perfect.

CAUTION: Be very sure you're doing this in a room with LOTS of ventilation. Outdoors is preferable. Whatever you do, don't do it in the room with your animals. The fumes are nasty!!

EDIT -- Be sure you're using a round, pointy tip...not a flat "screwdriver" looking tip.

EDIT for one more tip -- Make your holes from left to right, if you're right handed...and right to left if you're left handed....so that you're not dragging the hand holding the iron over freshly melted holes.

i dont see anything wrong with just drilling the holes, or are you not supposed to do that for some reason?

Melting the holes means less mess, in my opinion. Drilling risks cracking the more brittle plastics...it's noisy...and it makes lots of "plastic dust." Melting them is really super easy....but that's just my preference. I don't know of any particular reason why you shouldn't drill if that works for you.

I have always drilled my holes into my tubs, never used a soldering iron because I have many other uses for that rather than mucking it up with melted plastic. In all the tubs I have drilled holes into, never once have I cracked any of them. Then I use a de-burring tool that belongs to my hubby that he uses as a machinist.. to clean up the edges of the drilled holes. The "shavings" that come off from the drilling and de-burring land right back in the tub and are dumped out after I am done, then the tub is cleaned, which you should do anyhow. If you are cracking your tub when drilling, most likely you are putting too much pressure on the tub to begin with or your drill bit is dull.

whenever i melted mine i kept a papertowel tube handy it had that last little bit of papertowell on it, you konw the stuff that you have to scrape off anyway, every couple of holes i'd just wipe it on there and twist it off, it kept the iron pretty clean

Oh yeah...I forgot about wiping. :ohmygod: LOL ....I always keep a very wet sponge nearby when soldering (or melting) anything. A quick swipe across the sponge cleans off any residue very quickly and easily.


I've never actually tried drilling, was just repeating what I've heard others say about it. As I said, I don't think one method is better than another, just whatever works best for you.

I hate being so OCD but oh well. Thanks for the feedback guys. Also another quick question: is it ok to clean your tubs with soapy water and then just wash everything off again with really hot water?

Thanks

should be fine. just rinse it out good, which you should do anyway.

Ofcourse, thanks. Can they breathe just fine without the tub holes though? there is a like a few centimeters of room between the tub and the shelf roof. I primarily wanted the holes for humidity and circulation.

Another hint if you're doing a lot of tubs... I made a template out of one of those big paint stirring sticks that they give you at Home Depot to mix the 5 gallon buckets of paint. I just measured the holes evenly, drilled, then use that when I go to melt the holes in my tubs. Perfect holes ever time, and they all look the the same.

BTW, I did try drilling the first couple of times, but my Sterilite tubs did crack. It wasn't too bad, just small 1/2" cracks by the hole, but it bugged me. Maybe my drill bit wasn't sharp enough or perhaps I pushed too hard. Either way, I like the smooth and easy holes that the soldering iron makes.

depends i'm sure you'll be opening them alot so they'll get fresh air, but you want the holes to control humidity, aswell as to regulate temps, and to refresh the air, so it's not becoming stagnant, i have 1 line about 1/4" apart going across mine and it holds a lid....sometimes i open it up and it's very stale air so i mean holes are your friend :D maybe even some down lower as well i dont know with holes it's trial and error.

Ya, i just used a drill bit and drilled through it. Cracked it once but nothing bad. Was simple and fast!

In my case - I had no drill, and the price was right on the soldering wand ($5).


I just do like Judy said, strait in, strait out. I keep an old towel that I'm not going to use again for quickly wiping the risidual plastic off the wand.