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Drilling Carbon Fibre?


ROC

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I received my new rear wing from Caterham yesterday. I am not quite sure why, but this one is not pre drilled like the last one. There are five holes to drill, four are for the self tappers that attach the light and one is for the wires from the light. The latter, requires a bigger hole to take a rubber gromet. I do not have a sufficiently large drill except for a wood boring tool that has a profile something like:

 

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Is it stupid for me to attempt this or will it be ok if I take it slowly?

 

thanks for the advice and sorry for the poor graphics.

 

Rupe

 

Edited by - rupe on 23 Nov 2001 08:05:16

 

Edited by - rupe on 23 Nov 2001 08:05:58

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Rupe,

 

Don't use wood augers or hole cutters as these are a bit agricultural and you may well splinter the CF.

 

CF is surprisingly easy to shape using something like 40grit sand paper or even a file. For big holes, I use a hole cutter from Halfords - about £12 - it looks like a small cone - they actually do two - you want the smooth one not the stepped one. This will bore a hole up to about 22mm and seems to work fine on CF.

 

Place some masking tape over the drilling site (helps to stop splintering) then drill a small pilot hole (5mm) first then swap over to the hole cutter and with gentle pressure and reasonably high speed open out the hole to the desierd size.

 

You could also use a dremel mini drill with a tungsten-carbide cutting bit. A steady hand and a bit of courage usually sees you through.

 

Good luck

 

Steve Mell

PTM 88

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Thanks Steve,

 

I will go looking for a tool tomorrow. Halfords etc are out as I live in Sri Lanka but I guess that it is worth the effort shopping around given what you have just said.

 

Thanks again

 

Rupe

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