For 6 years I've been cutting speakers out on prewire jobs. Ideally the speakers would have been sold and we could have installed brackets, but some customers can't decide till later. I have tried sheetrock saws(messy,messy,& can tear sheetrock & chip paint), utility knives(slow & can slip and scar outside of speaker hole), roto-zip(messy,messy,messy,messy,& noisy), and the round hole cutter for a drill(this is kinda neat, comes with attached see-threw bowl, big pain in the ass and makes ring around outside of finished speaker). Have an upcomming job that requires many speakers be cut in egg-shell finished ceilings. Any ideas? How about roto-zip with see-threw bowl? Also, all furniture will be in house. Must be very neat.

Lots of drop clothes a good double toothe drywall saw, a box to catch the dust and drywall, (spker box works well)
If you hav eatic access and a partner, send him up in the attic and cut the hole from in the attic, hold a empty box directly against the ceiling, this will catch all the mess.

This is kinda time consuming but there is no mess.

Dustless rotozip bit (sends dust up) still has a tendecy to make a mess.

CB1

we have found by using clean cardboard between the ceiling and the speaker hole saw ,the haylo effect the u will get caused by the sheetrock dust getting imbedded in the foam gasket (that u can never fully clean from the clear dust collector gasket)never comes into play and "no ring around the collar". Use a nice square piece of cardboard ,pop the tools bit in first then u can get into a good spot slightly off from where your wire pull hole is ..as the tool is cutting through the card then right on through the ceiling its gasket has not abrased the ceiling at all(it has been in contact with the cardboard only) in fact u can use that cardboard template that was created on the first cut a good few times (assuming u have a bunch of speakers the same size...this does work..done it....

We use either the trusty old drywall saw or a variable speed rotozip. The variable speed keeps the dust to a minimum, which is still a lot especially in ceilings. Use the right bit for the egshell, the drywall bits will work, but the plaster or cement bits make less dust, but require a different RPM. Rotozip also has a circle cutter attachment that saves a lot of time. A good drywall saw will do the the best job (in my experience), just cut slow with minimal pressure to keep the cut smooth and even. The cardboard trick works also.

I rely on a totally simple tool that unfortunately takes too much time, but I always get a perfect hole.

Stanley makes a couple of versions of a sawblade holder ($8 - $12) that will hold anything from a jig saw blade to a hack saw blade. Its holding surfaces are the perfect size to hold Sawzall blades.

I am continually finding 8" or longer blades on construction sites that are a tiny bit dull, so the speed of the power tool makes it dangerous to use. But I can use it by hand to cut at least twenty holes in drywall, fewer holes in harder stuff.

Yup, I cut them by hand. Takes a bit longer. But I learned how to do this when I had no patching and painting backup, so every hole had to be perfect.

How about a 16 oz saw

Charlie, I know this seems old school. But I have always prefered the sheetrock saw. I wont use power tools (except on plaster, or wood ) because of the fear of cutting something I did'nt want to. Like electrical or plumbing.. The stanley saw is cool and so is the shark. Saves on the shoulders after a while. As for the mess old school again, do it 2 man 1 guy with the saw, 1 with a good vac hose. Done this alot in old plaster homes 100 plus old. Man what a mess. Any how good ol drop clothes when used with the vac should keep down the mess.. THXRick

I've found that, with the most finicky of customers, using a box cutter (to score the paint and protect from runs and tears in the drywall or paint), then using a good double tooth drywall saw (to do the actual cutting) gives very clean cuts in any (sheetrock based) wall or ceiling. My guys are now starting to use the roto-zip with a vacuum cleaner taped to it to catch the dust. They claim it is almost perfect, although I still require them to use many drop cloths. As we do retro-fit work exclusively here we definitly have much experience with this.

Jeff

For years we have been using a couple of tricks that keep us in good favor with homeowners in retrofit situations. I notice everyone says dropcloths... they wont catch all of the flying dust that ends up landing on surfaces a day later.

For wall speakers get a painter's hand masker, load it with blue tape (tan will destroy wallpaper) and 12" paper and pull off about 4 feet. start it down the left side of your cut, bend it 90 degrees about 3 inches down from the bottom of the cut and bend it back up on the right side. Wrinkle the front of the paper and you've now madea great disposable dust catcher. One of the big houses around here saw me doing that and immediately called his boss to tell him how simple cleanup could be.

For ceiling speakers... get your pattern drawn and bluetape a clear garbage bag around the speaker template (we use the big ones from costco). Throw your knife down to the bottom of the bag and cut by grabbing it from the outside while it is in the bag... all dust falls in the bag. You can easily get 4 cuts before replacing the bag but take out the plug each time as the weight can make it fall.

This may seem extreme but we've had many homeowners thank us for the extra effort in kkeping their premises clean and the extra time it takes to prep easily beats vacuum up time.

Hey! I like the saw-in-the-bag trick! I often retro-install recessed lighting with my 24v DeWalt and a 6-3/8" hole saw. Next time, I might try a second, smaller bag to keep dust out of the drill.

Thanx!

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

the saw in bag trick and drop cloth insurance is what we do.

Drywall saw and a small shop-vac with a long hose does it for me. Hold the hose just in front or just behind the blade and that does a pretty dustless job. (drop sheets too of course)

I just got an adapter for my Rotozip. It is a 2" clear cylinder that fits around the bit and has a tapered tunnel that fits my shop vac hose. Works pretty good but the dust clogs up my shop vac pretty fast. $14.00 at the Depot.

Although extremely expensive, you can buy diamond coated hole saws for cutting plaster, drywall and tile in sizes all the way up to 12" in diameter, we had one in my previous job, and it was awesome. Almost all dust was contained INSIDE the bit, because it moved so slow, and remaing cleanup, if using a drop cloth, took seconds. Perfect holes in all surfaces (except wood) and no damage otherwise. Again, these work VERY well, and are available in sizes that fit almost all round speakers, I think the bit we had was the most popular, making about an 9 3/4 inch hole, and cost about $140.00. The up side is that this bit will last forever with proper care, and takes seconds to use. The down size it it is very expensive, and WON'T last forever if tossed around! Try diamond coated sawall bits at very low speed as well for rectangular speakers. Because they move so slow, they are easy to clean up after!

avdude
www.integrationpros.com

Labor Saving Devices makes a great tool holds the dust in and cuts your hole.

[Link: lsdinc.com]

Here is the link