Starting a Pilot Hole in a Stainless Steel Bow Pulpit

[MHBsailor]

I need to drill a small hole in the back of my stainless steel bow pulpit to run a wire for the bow nav light. Since the bow pulpit is circular, it is radiused just enough and hard which makes it difficult to get a pilot hole started with a punch or nail (they keep slipping off before making an indelible impression). Is anyone aware of a clamp-on device that could hole a small drill bit in place while the initial hole is started? Thanks! JD

[jbenagh]

Did you try the punch thru masking tape? I've had success with that.
Jeff

[Frenchy]

Another thing you can try is a simple jig. Drill a vertical hole (preferably in a drill press) in a small wooden block.
Then draw 45 degree lines maybe one inch long intersecting in line with the drilled hole. Then band saw or jig saw along the two lines -which intersect at 90 degrees. You have a vee block now with a drilled hole on center. Hold the block against
the rail and drill the stainless using the pre-drilled hole in the block as a guide. Use a sharp drill, relatively slow speed and heavy
pressure. If you need to drill a 1/4" hole, start with 1/16" or 1/8" pilot hole in the vee block and work your way up using progressively larger drills. Hope this helps and that you can understand- a drawing would admittedly be better.

[John Stone]

I typically use the wood block with the wedge cut out of it as Jean described anytime I am drilling or cutting a round tube or pipe. It the only way I know if to coral the pipe securely.

Also, often overlooked but very important is a sharp bit that’s made for metal. It should cut through the pulpit very easily.

[hilbert]

On Amazon, there is an inexpensive drill guide with v-grooves that should do the trick:
https://www.amazon.com/Milescraft-1312- ... way&sr=8-1



If money is no object, there is this jig:
https://www.trick-tools.com/Drill_Rite_ ... _Rite_1155

[Frenchy]

Something like this would work for you, at mininum cost, only with one hole and made out of a scrap piece of
wood. - Good luck, Jean

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/473159504600092018/

[John Stone]

Attached pictures below are of my home built wedge drill block cut from a piece of 2x4 just as Jean described. It’s best to use a table saw to cut the wedge but you can cut it with many different kinds of saws...even with a handsaw if you are careful and patient.

In the photos (not great but best I could find on my phone) I have a stanchion clamped into the bracket while I drill holes for the bronze fittings with a small drill press. I have used the same wood drill block for maybe 8 or 9 years. You can use this kind of block to (a) clamp a pipe so it can’t move and (b) as a drill guide to ensure the hole is centered in the tube. What you do for (b) is drill a hole through the center of the “V” before you clamp to the pulpit. Then flip it over and use the hole you drilled through the block as a guide to drill back through the block and into the pulpit tube. Clamp the drill block to the pulpit tube and ensure you know exactly where the hole is. I usually draw lines on four side of the block showing the alignment of the hole. The thicker the block of wood and the deeper the guide the more accurate it will be. Pine is OK but ash is better as it reaistangetting distorted as you drill multiple holes. For a single project though pine is more than adequate.

If you make two wedge cut drill blocks then you can have two opposing flat surfaces for your clamps and they reduce the likelihood the clamps will slip like they will do sometimes when one end of the clamp is sitting on the drill block and the other is on the convex surface of the tube.