So I tried drilling out the various stuffing tube holes. First one broke off. Drats. So I tried working up to a larger diameter. Kinda worked better. Then I stepped back, grabbed the stuffing tube sleeve that I want to insert, looked at it, cut off a chunk of the slightly larger than 1/4" tube (one of the brass tubes that allows the 1/4" stuffing tube to slide in there) and cut off a 2-3" piece. Then I took a small hobby file - one of the triangular ones - and scored several v shape cuts into the edge. Then inserted the tube into my drill...damn that thing cuts through the 3/8" plywood like butter, and does not splinter the wood at all. I'm sure people know about that already, but darn that worked well...back to cutting. Thomas
I made mine with stainless barrel tubing, filled it with metal epoxy compound, then put a 2mm drill backwards in the drill chuck on the dead end of my lathe, put the tube in the headstock chuck and wound the two together before the epoxy set up. The drill makes a nice centering bit.
I ended up stacking a master rib with the 3 holes on top of each of the other ones, line them up, clamp them, and then use the "pilot hole" of the master to drill out the others. Worked nice - had a whole bunch of ribs to drill through. No breakage at all. Just cleaning the brass tube was a bit of a challenge.
Looking VERY swanky on the work table I wish I had time to build and battle every ship I think is cool. Perhaps in heaven
