[Mick O'Malley]

By about noon, the sun had illuminated the cave sufficiently for me to crunch down there over the grass. Ratchet strapping the tank to the workmate had it stable enough to commence my 'ring of holes' 3mm drilling. Punching the thin metal for the drill's starting points was tricky, especially on the angled webs, and I decided to do a quadrant at a time, using the slim home modified padsaw blade to join them.



Three repeats and the rather jagged and not amazingly circular centre was out. I thought of wandering down to Screwfix on Lucky's recommendation but decided to have a burrow in the shed first, where I came across a box of flapwheels which I think I bought when I was building the A352. There were three grits, 40, 80, and 120. Popping the most aggressive in the drill I attacked the jagged hole a little at a time, repeatedly offering up the pipe to check progress. Eventually it could just be inserted with a little push and twist. It wasn't the interference fit I'd hoped for in my dream world, but the one or two millimetre gaps in places won't prove a problem for the TIGmeister . Happy with another small step I called it a day.



Regards, Mick