Today I embarked on the task of drilling through the socket and the gear leg. I have been dreading this for ever since I bought the gear legs. I was told these were hardened steel but I didn’t start looking up what kind of metal. In fact they are 6150 Tempered steel so a bit on the hard side. I consulted my local machinist/A&P/Engineer about drilling this in a drill press. He gave me 2-1/8″ X bits, 1/4″ X bit and and a quad fluted 1/4″ tip stepped to 3/8″ carbide bit that not only drills but reams. X bits are already carbide and eat most anything in their way but I was still prepared for the worst. I used loads of cutting oil and went at it. Truth be told they were really easy to drill and took no time at all as long as you cast your tailings and put lots of pressure in extremely short intervals and make sure to get those tailings out of there. All in all Set up and drilling took about 1.5 hours for the right leg tomorrow is the left then I will be ready for welding.
Time spent today 1.5 hours Total time spent on the mod is 15.5 hours
Pitts S-1SX 