3/18/02

     I finally drilled out the holes I needed to on the bottom of the hull.  It's amazing how tricky it was just to put two symmetrical dents in the plastic!

     I practiced with several types of bits for a dremel tool lent to me by a friend (Ed gets deep, profuse Thank-You's!!) on the Enterprise-D for quite a few days until I got it perfect.  There are many things to take into account, primarily:

  • When you touch model plastic with a 30,000 rpm grinding bit, it disappears - no resistance, no nothing.  If you sneeze, half the model's gone!

  • The rotation of the bit - when you touch the plastic the hole doesn't appear where you think it should, it will do it just a skoche south.

    True, I could have done this manually, but I traded off the time it would take to use a circular file to .5mm accuracy, or the delicacy of using a tool for the job.