Today’s task, or at least the Shoal Waters related task since I have other tasks that I wish to carry out today as well, such as building a rope maker, is to drill the holes into the ends of the two new cross beams and then cut down and fit the u-bolts.
This is the jig I used to locate the holes in the correct position. It fits over the end of the beam and guided the drill bit until a small indentation has been cut into the metal. The jig is removed and a small diameter bit is used to drill right through the top wall of the beam. This was repeated for all four beam ends. After that the correct sized hole was drilled using the indentation to center the bit.
The next part of the process is to take a cross beam into the workshop and put it onto the drill press, supporting the other end to keep the beam perpendicular to the drill bit.
The jig is clamped to the end of the beam and the correct sized drill bit used to make an indentation in the beam. This is done on both ends and on both sides of the beam.
Here is the result of one end. The size of the indentation isn’t critical, it’s just there for the next stage.
A small hole is drilled through the wall of the beam, in this case a 3mm hole as this is the smallest bit the drill press will hold. Again this is done on both ends and both sides.
The large drill bit is then used to open up the hole to the correct size.
This results in a perfect fit for the u-bolt, which was the intention. This shows how a simple jig turns a complicated job into something a lot easier to achieve.
Finally, the u-bolt legs are cut to size and the beam is bolted securely onto to the trailer.
I only had time to do one of the beams this evening, I also spent some time using the CNC Route on another task which I also didn’t finish. Both of these tasks will be completed tomorrow.
Time for a cup of tea.