Drilling Fiberglass

[mlwynn]

Hi all,

I researched this and couldn't find an answer. When I use a regular bit to drill holes in fiberglass--specifically, I am making holes to screw the two halves of my wheel pants together--the drill appears to slightly fracture the fiberglass. I have tried using a much smaller hole and then going up with a couple of reams. This works better, but I am sure that it will dull the reams in short order.

Does the little bit of fracture matter? Is there a difference kind of bit that would work better? Repair with just a little bit of resin?


Regards,

Michael Wynn
RV 8 Fiberglass stuff
San Ramon, CA

[DGlaeser]

The trick is to sandwich the F/G between a couple of blocks of wood, or even blocks of F/G. That usually eliminates the splitting caused by the bit grabbing individual layers as it goes through. Duller bits don't grab as well so keep using the same bit. Once I use a bit for F/G I put it in my F/G only bin because they do get dull pretty quick.
The littlel bit of fracture is cosmetic from a functional point of view. Just dab some resin as you mentioned, and move on.