Cabin frame strap drilling
Yesterday was Julie’s birthday, so I took the night off from the project.
Tonight I worked on drilling the aft cabin frame sections to the inner strap. I had a hard time getting the strap to nest nicely inside the bend of the frame. I kept using the Scotchbrite wheel to round down the corner, but it just wasn’t removing enough material. I finally just used the belt sander on it. That worked.
I spent way too much time trying to lay out the drill pattern with rulers, fractions, and a calculator. I finally figured out an easy way to do it. I marked where I wanted the holes to start and end on the cabin frame. Then I laid some tape along where I wanted the holes and marked the start and end points on the tape. I peeled off the tape and put it on a flat surface. Using the rivet fan, I marked out 19 evenly spaced holes. And finally, I put the tape back on the frame and transferred the marks to it. I was able to use the tape on both sides of the aft half of the cabin frame, and should also be able to use it on the front half. Easy.
Using lots of clamps and the long #30 drill bit, I drilled through the frame into the strap. It would have worked better to pre-drill the frame to #40 and then drill the frame and strap together to #30. I’ll do that for the remainder of the frame. This thing sure has a lot of holes in it.
