Ok guys I'm not a mechanic or electrician nor have I had any training, and the work below may not seem difficult to the season'd AO members, but I've finished building my first egomag with much trouble using the how-to from Hill. I just bought the frame last week here on AO and took me about a week to finish.
My tools used were: Dremel with diamond-speck burrs (don't use this on metal), single cut carbide burr (my savior), wrench, cordless 18v drill,
This is where I had alot of trouble:
1. Drilling and tapping various bolts: 6-32, 10-32, and 1/8-27. I've never drilled aluminum in my life so this was painstaking. I would drill sideways, not straight, and sometimes it would get caught up. I read online to spray some WD40 on it and it solved most of my problems. Drilling the second 1/8 air port was the most difficult. I would drill down and it would get caught up in the cross section to the first 1/8 air port. I tried tapping at that point but the tap wouldn't go all the way, so then I just drilled reverse slowly to kill it. This is hard to explain but whoever's done it would understand.
2. I tried to shave the inside of the star frame and the MPA3 ram with a burr but all it did was sand. I tried a hand file but it took forever, so then I read online about carbide burrs, and voila! What a wonderful piece of metal.
3. Lesson: get a quality set of drill bits. I originally had a set of black and decker Steel and at one point some of the bits just heated up the metal because the tip got dull. I bought some TiN (titanium coated) bits and oh my god it went through the aluminum like butter.
4. Metal shavings are hard to get off. What do you guys use to wash it off?
Hill's instructions:
Here are some pictures:
My tools used were: Dremel with diamond-speck burrs (don't use this on metal), single cut carbide burr (my savior), wrench, cordless 18v drill,
This is where I had alot of trouble:
1. Drilling and tapping various bolts: 6-32, 10-32, and 1/8-27. I've never drilled aluminum in my life so this was painstaking. I would drill sideways, not straight, and sometimes it would get caught up. I read online to spray some WD40 on it and it solved most of my problems. Drilling the second 1/8 air port was the most difficult. I would drill down and it would get caught up in the cross section to the first 1/8 air port. I tried tapping at that point but the tap wouldn't go all the way, so then I just drilled reverse slowly to kill it. This is hard to explain but whoever's done it would understand.
2. I tried to shave the inside of the star frame and the MPA3 ram with a burr but all it did was sand. I tried a hand file but it took forever, so then I read online about carbide burrs, and voila! What a wonderful piece of metal.
3. Lesson: get a quality set of drill bits. I originally had a set of black and decker Steel and at one point some of the bits just heated up the metal because the tip got dull. I bought some TiN (titanium coated) bits and oh my god it went through the aluminum like butter.
4. Metal shavings are hard to get off. What do you guys use to wash it off?
Hill's instructions:
Here are some pictures:
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