Enlarging bucket holes

Bucket holes are around 3/8", for the wire hooks of a 7/16" tap. I'm using shark-fin 5/16" taps which need a 5/8" hole or bigger. The buckets have a metal grommet in the existing holes, to protect the aluminum bucket edge from wearing. I fabri-cobbled some hooks and put them on the spout before hammering in, but it lets the bucket sit too far forward of the spout & some of my drips are going to miss the bucket.

Have you guys opened these holes and sat the aluminum directly on 5/16" spout body (no grommet). It seems like it would hole up OK, with the better contact area compared to the wire hanger? Or am I asking for egg shaped holes by the end of this season?

Maybe put a rubber grommet in the hole to protect the aluminum? Metal grommets won't work with the larger hole and lip in the buckets.

Tapped and hung some buckets last night with my 9 and 6 year old boys, for the first time. It was a blast.

I would not try to enlarge the hole. Would create a second hole two inches or so over. Some of my older buckets have multiple holes. Also, I would punch the hole if possible rather than drilling, this might not be easy for you to do, but drills generally create triangular holes in sheet metal, punches create a much cleaner hole. I don't have a good edge thickening idea off the top of my head. The rubber grommet sounds better than nothing.

Pete

Tapped 10 aluminum and 10 plastic buckets yesterday like that by putting the spiles through the bucket into the tree. Kinda a pain tapping the spiles on in with the hammer,but buckets won’t fly off in the wind,then just tip the bucket to either 3 or 9 o’clock to empty it