Bulb Lamp

Step 3

The kind of plastic these sweet jar lids are made of is very brittle, so if you go straight into it with a hole cutter it will most likely shatter into a ragged hole, or at least send cracks toward the edge of the lid. By being a bit careful you can put a relatively clean hole in it though.

First of all, make a small pilot hole in the centre to guide the hole cutter rather than having it move around the lid while you try to force the point through. Beware, plastic will bite as soon as your drill gets through it*, so go into it slowly and be ready to pull back. Don't push down too hard, and use a slow drill speed. Go into it like this until you've scored a circle into the plastic.

Second, turn it over and press it against a bit of wood to go through it. Score the circle into this side too, still being gentle. Keep going, and at a certain point the plastic within the circle will shatter, leaving you with a hole of exactly the right size.

If you do this fast, without scoring the edge of the hole on both sides first, the shattering could more or less go all over the lid.