4.1 mm Drill Bit

[DMS]

I'm just starting to build a Megablade and seem to have fallen at the first hurdle.  The manual says that I need a 4.1 mm drill bit in order to rivet the metal sheets to the chassis.

Can I find anyone who sells 4.1 mm drill bits?  Not a chance.

Question 1: does anyone have a good source where I can get such a drill bit?

Question 2: I am going to create a disaster if I use a 4 mm drill bit instead?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

dms

[Pembroke Pat]

Thank goodness someone is asking the silly question that I was going to ask.  I am collecting my kit on Friday and was going to ask when I was collecting.  I'll let you know....unless someone is kind enough to put us out of our misery.  

[peterg]

Just use a 4mm bit and then wiggle it    slightly to get the extra 0.1mm - I was doing this at the weekend with 3.2mm rivets

BTW: I've never seen a drill bit in anything but N or N.5mm sizes maybe you can get them but I haven't seen them in 'normal' tool shops  

[Nick M]

You can get 4.2 mm drills - Black and Wrecker do them.  I find it easier to use this size drill rather than mess about trying to get every rivet into its hole.

Correct size is an imperial drill - 5/32 I believe.

[Richard Salisbury]

Any good engineering supplier will have drills in 0.1mm increments. Typical names are Buck and Hickman, Cromwell Tools etc. Look in your yellow pages for Engineers supplies or Tool suppliers or similar.

Wiggling it a bit will work, but you'll soon break the drill and do you really want to start your pride and joy with a codge?

RS

[peterg]

my mistake - I must try a find a decent tool shop in my area

I normally end up having to use Homebase as it's the only place still open on my way home from work 'cos where I work is full of clothes shops, coffee bars and estate agents

[Kevin Wood]

I think I did most of my car with a 4mm drill bit and the rivets didn't need much persuasion to go into this size of hole without drill waggling. The occasional tap with a hammer was all that was required.

A work of warning: buy good quality drills and buy half a dozen. The chassis is guite hard and cheap drills just disintegrate. You've got a lot of holes to drill and even the best drill bits won't last forever

Kevin

[ACW]

if your hand drilling the holes 4mm will likely be 4.1 anyway without the wiggle.

Alternatively get an imperial drill in 32/64ths. Engineering drills are availiable in pretty much all increments.

[Blatman]

32/64th's would be half an inch...............

Are you any good at parking, Adrian......    

[ACW]

Wot I meant waz in 32ths or 64ths (round my way imperial drills are availible in a wider range than metrics)

ie: 5/32 as per previous post.

[kennedyj]

If you are using a hand rivetter for all the panels make sure you get a decent quality tool, you have hundreds of rivets to do and cheap tools tend to wear quickly and start to slip and jam.

You need a 5/32 inch drill bit - try and get one with a built-in pilot drill tip - centre popping the ally tends to distort it.

If you are doing all the panels yourself an added benefit is that your rivetting hand will become so strong that you will be able to crush empty beer cans whilst maintaining that macho, unflinching, steely-eyed stare  

-JohnK

[John Loudon - Sponsorship Liaison]

Also use closed head rivets so that water does not get into your chassis tubes. Very reccomended on the floors.

[Clive]

You might like to try engineering supplies up in Scotland.

They do mail order and have a wide range of quality tools etc.

www.engineeringsupplies.com

No connection with the company

Clive

[Richard Salisbury]

All my ally panels were punched with the rivet holes in - just needed to drill through into the chassis.

Agree about the tool - I used a hand tool and was knackered after an hour or so of rivetting! Had forearms like Popeye! Best to get either a telescopic type or better stll hire a pneumatic one - wish I had coz I've got a compressor.

RS