If you have a drill and want a perfect round hole and you have money to spare, you can head down to the hardware store and buy a circular blade made for cutting metal holes. These are quite expensive and when we went to the store to check prices, they ranged from about $15 for a 60mm or 80mm size to $25 for a 120mm size.

This is what we used for this article. If you have a Dremel style tool, we recommend this method because it's pretty fast and gives a nice even circle if you're careful. Here's what our tool looked like:



Here are what the metal cutting blades look like:



See the size of the piece in the center compared to the others? That's how small these babies get after about 5 minutes of cutting. And they break sometimes too, so wear safety goggles! :)

A jigsaw works pretty good for this task if none of the other cutting tools are available. Make sure it has a metal cutting blade. If you don't have one, they cost about $2.00 or so from a hardware store. Here's the metal cutting blade we purchased:



And here's the ol' jigsaw:

If you're cutting in a place that doesn't already have holes for your bolts, you will need to drill holes. This is a very easy task if you have a drill and metal cutting drill bits. Find a drill bit that's approximately the same size as the bolts, then put the fan in place and hold it very secure. Drill through the fan's mounting holes and into the metal. It may take a little pressure to get it through. When you're done, smooth around both sides (inside and out) where the metal may have popped up a bit.

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