First Setback

[Vince Carucci]

I drilled 1/4 inch holes in the hinge blocks to align the parts during aileron assembly. I then returned with a 5/16 drill bit to expand the holes big enough to insert the hinge bearing.  The larger drill bit hard into the wood and pulled the drill in very quickly. The hinge block didn't survive. Gotta fix this mess somehow. 

PUBLIC SERVICE MESSAGE: Don't do what I did.

[Kamcoman77]

Were you using a brad-point bit? Most of the time a brad-point will not grab nearly as strongly as a standard bit. If you don't want to replace the entire block, I would try to epoxy on a repair piece, fill the hole with a birch dowel and re-drill using a small pilot hole.

[Vince Carucci]

Thank you for you thoughts. I'm going to incorporate the wooden dowel and brad-point drill into my repair plan. I'm pretty confident I can get this project back on track.  Thanks again.

Vince