Nov. 17 - Cutting the last hole.

This week I opened up my engine. Isn't it beautiful? (As a note, an engine laying on it's side will leak oil-- my poor car.)

I also drilled the last hole in the tank. It took about 2 hours. The challenge this time wasn't clamping, it was dealing with the height of the steel tube. It was a tight fit. In the picture below the Quill (the part that holds the cutting tool) is all the way up and I've only got an inch or so of clearance. 

When I was turning a spiral bit, I had to use a collet instead of a typical chuck. It worked though. Notice the clamping arrangement. The vice is holding a piece of angle iron to which the tube is clamped. I learned that you can move the plate on the jaw of the vice from one side to the other.

The angle iron wouldn't fit into the jaws in a 'normal' configuration, but this made the jaws have a much deeper throat. This way they could hold the angle. Finally a picture of your intrepid machinist:

* Timesheet updated.