Cutting hole in factory seat full of foam, see a good way.

Everyone who has an aluminum boat one time or another has wanted to cut a hole in the factory mounted seat, usually about 20" or more across for wires or cables. Start by cutting the proper size hole on each side for your PVC pipe or whatever you want to use for your cables and wires. I used 2" PVC pipe.
Heat a small dia. rod approx 1/8" or so by laying on top of a fully charged batteries positive and negative terminals to get it hot. Using vise grips insert the hot rod into the foam on the edge of the foam at the hole and go thru to the other side running around the edges of the hole. You may have to do this a couple of times. Have another person helping with another pair of vice grips on the other side. Run the rod around the opening of the hole until all foam is pulled out. Should be a clean hole for inserting of the tube for rigging now. If you try it a different way, let us know. If this is not a good idea for you, do not try or use it.
See diagram below.

Did you really heat up a rod by placing it across the terminals of a fully charged battery?
I pretty sure I wouldn't try to heat a rod up that way.
Your idea is pretty good other then that.

That's what they did at the boat repair shop on my boat, jus' sayin'

I see doing the wire thing but have an adjustable rheostat to control the heat.

I don't know.
I was just thinking putting a dead short across a battery would be a bad idea.
Gotta be some sparks or maybe I'm not understanding the explanation.

i just used a holeshaw with an extension to do mine it went threw the foam like nothing nice and clean hole

fryman said:

i just used a holeshaw with an extension to do mine it went threw the foam like nothing nice and clean hole

Click to expand...

I was thinking that's how I would do it if I had that issue too.

If I have to make a round hole, a hole saw cuts out the aluminum, and a piece of PVC with a couple notches cut in the end makes a great foam coring tool. For larger holes, a bread knife works well.

Putting a dead short across a batteries is a bad idea and COULD cause the battery to explode. Propane torches are cheap if you wish to heat up a rod but I will just use a hole saw or a long keyhole saw.

That's an excellent way to completely destroy a terminal on the battery. Could result in a trip to ER with an embarrassing explanation to the doc too.
I use holesaws and knives. Better to spend a little extra time than to burn your eyes out of your skull.