Customer Reviews

General Tools 31A Plug Cutter

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I purchased these plug cutters recently to plug top screw holes on my floor installation. A plug cutter is a plug cutter right? Well not exactly.

The hardwood floor I was installing included a White Oak border that was top screwed and plugged. I had a heck of a time making high quality plugs. The plug either broke off in the plug cutter (too short) or they burned leaving a visable ring on the floor.

With my drill press set at a very low RPM I was finally able to make plugs that didn't burn but only when I used very tight gained plain sawn stock. By the time I figured out exactly which speed and which stock was best, the cutter was dull and produced burned plugs again. Argh!

I ended up going to a local Woodcraft store and buying another brand of plug cutter. With its 4 cutting surfaces this cutter worked like a champ. Had I only spent the extra money on a high quality plug cutter I would have saved myself hours of aggravation. What's your time worth?

For use in a hand held drill, the four prong cutters work much better. These cutters tend to walk all over the board before grabbing hold. On the other hand, properly controlled in a drill press, the waste is much less with these as the cutting edge is much thinner.

As mentioned in a previous review, the General plug cutter burns the wood much easier than the four prong vesion...the bottom is essentially a flat rotating knife edge with only one cutting slot. Feeding it too fast, or at too high rate of speed builds up a lot of heat very quickly. The multi-prong cutter chews through the wood much faster and cuts a wider groove. The chips clear easily and this pretty much avoids the heat problem. If you go with the General Tools cutter, run it at a slow speed and back it out of the hole often to allow the chips to clear and the cutter to cool.

I purchased a set of 3 which included the 3/8" advertised here. After setting my drill press to the recommended 1000 rpm, I attempted to cut plugs in a variety of soft & hard woods. All of them came out with burn rings. I changed speeds on my drill press and also varied the amount of pressure. All attempts came to the same result. I ended up purchasing a 4 pronged set from Rockler and am very happy with the results. General Tools messed up on this one.

arrived in package was not a plug cutter instead was a bunch of brass pilot tips i am sending back to amazon i really needed it but now i guess i will go to spend money elsewhere