From what I have learned about drilling the flap blocks, I am more prepared to drill these pedal blocks. First step is that I made a template out of aluminum and placed #40 pilot holes in the correct location.
These get clamped to the top, and then the bottom of the plastic block allowing me to use the palm drill to correctly place a #40 starter hole....This starter hole is just a few thousandths deep and is meant to just mark the top of the plastic as a guide for drilling on the drill press.
Once I have the holes "Marked" I then set-up the drill press. Making sure the platform/drill bit is all square. I used 2"x 2" oak blocks to clamp everything down to the drill press platform. Now, comes the tedious part. Once happy with the drill press alignment. I drilled the holes with #40 jobber bit but only half-way through. Then I flip the block over and do the same - drill halfway through. I use the jobber bit as its shorter, more stiff, and less likely to wander when drilling through thick plastic. Drilling halfway reduces the potential for wander.
I worked through #40, #30, #2, #15 this way...Only halfway through and flipping it to do the other side. Each time I am able to check that the holes align perfectly when looking through the hole.
I then finished the holes using a #10 bit set rather loose in the drill jig but drilling all the way through this time. The result is excellent...I have a good "pilot" hole that allows the #10 bit to track all the way through and not wander.
Next tedious (scary part) that I was dreading was to cut the F-6115 center pedal block. I finally decided that cutting these on the bandsaw was the way to go, but I am nervous about it as I have a cheap Ryobi band-saw and the blade isn't that rigid. So I clamped a large oak block to the band saw as a guide.
The result is really good. Uhhh, big worry off my mind that it all went well.
I moved on to cleaning up the rudder pedals and fabricated the F-6117C angles for the pedals.
