Subject: Drilling into plastic fish fillet tray
This is FYI posting.
Yesterday I purchased a plastic tray that would be installed on the stern corner of my cockpit railing for placing fish for cleaning etc. In order to install this tray I had to buy an attachment that grips the rail that has a rotating plate that is bolted to the plastic tray.
After aligning things up I proceeded to mark the 4 holes position on the tray to attach it to the railing attachment plate that swivels. I drilled out the first two holes and attached/bolted the tray to the swivel plate. With this I proceeded to drill the other two hole by selecting a drill bit smaller that the two exposed holes and then using a larger drill bit to open the holes up for allowing the two remaining bolts to easily slide through. Having done this I proceeded to insert and secure the remaining two screw bolts. All done and was pleased with my efforts.
The tray sits on the cockpit railing straddling the corner so it had stability from tilting when cutting fish on the tray. It also stuck out from the railing some so when not in use it needed to be removed for allowing the cockpit enclosure panels to align properly to the gunwale sides.
So I now precede to unbolt the tray. Three of the screw bolts came out easily, but the forth one could simply not be turned, no matter how much force I used. I struggled with this for maybe an hour trying to figure out what on earth was stopping the screw bolt from being unsecured. I gave up in the end and had to drill several holes around the bolt head to be able to get the plastic table removed from it underneath plate. What a mess I had and was very annoyed with myself.
A few choice words were flung at my Jake friend who seemed mightily amused at me buggering about trying to unsuccessfully removing the screw bolt from its underlying nut. :shock:
To the point of this posting.... what on earth was stopping this forth screw bolt from easily unscrewing as were the other three ? Then the penny dropped....
As I had drilled through the base plates two remain holes first with a small diameter drill bit and then a 2nd larger drill bit to enlarge the holes for the screw bolts some of the plastic residue from the drilling must has been embedded into the bolt nut's threads embedded in the plate. Then when screwing in the screw bolts (the forth one in this case) the plastic residue in the nut threads must have acted as 'loctite' and with the heat resulting from screwing in the screw bolt caused the bolt to be kind of welded to the nut. This has to be what happened.
Note to self: Newer ever try a short cut drilling holes in plastic with a drill bit passing it through a securing nut. Must from now on use a small drill bit to mark a spot and then disassemble to make the final hole. This should avoid what happed as described above.
I can live with what I have with just 3 bolts holding the tray with the forth hole in the tray looking bad, or buy another tray and do the right thing. 🙂 (A $30 mistake on my part as this was the cost of the plastic tray, plus finding another screw bolt & nut for the forth hole).
This is FYI posting.
Yesterday I purchased a plastic tray that would be installed on the stern corner of my cockpit railing for placing fish for cleaning etc. In order to install this tray I had to buy an attachment that grips the rail that has a rotating plate that is bolted to the plastic tray.
After aligning things up I proceeded to mark the 4 holes position on the tray to attach it to the railing attachment plate that swivels. I drilled out the first two holes and attached/bolted the tray to the swivel plate. With this I proceeded to drill the other two hole by selecting a drill bit smaller that the two exposed holes and then using a larger drill bit to open the holes up for allowing the two remaining bolts to easily slide through. Having done this I proceeded to insert and secure the remaining two screw bolts. All done and was pleased with my efforts.
The tray sits on the cockpit railing straddling the corner so it had stability from tilting when cutting fish on the tray. It also stuck out from the railing some so when not in use it needed to be removed for allowing the cockpit enclosure panels to align properly to the gunwale sides.
So I now precede to unbolt the tray. Three of the screw bolts came out easily, but the forth one could simply not be turned, no matter how much force I used. I struggled with this for maybe an hour trying to figure out what on earth was stopping the screw bolt from being unsecured. I gave up in the end and had to drill several holes around the bolt head to be able to get the plastic table removed from it underneath plate. What a mess I had and was very annoyed with myself.
A few choice words were flung at my Jake friend who seemed mightily amused at me buggering about trying to unsuccessfully removing the screw bolt from its underlying nut. :shock:
To the point of this posting.... what on earth was stopping this forth screw bolt from easily unscrewing as were the other three ? Then the penny dropped....
As I had drilled through the base plates two remain holes first with a small diameter drill bit and then a 2nd larger drill bit to enlarge the holes for the screw bolts some of the plastic residue from the drilling must has been embedded into the bolt nut's threads embedded in the plate. Then when screwing in the screw bolts (the forth one in this case) the plastic residue in the nut threads must have acted as 'loctite' and with the heat resulting from screwing in the screw bolt caused the bolt to be kind of welded to the nut. This has to be what happened.
Note to self: Newer ever try a short cut drilling holes in plastic with a drill bit passing it through a securing nut. Must from now on use a small drill bit to mark a spot and then disassemble to make the final hole. This should avoid what happed as described above.
I can live with what I have with just 3 bolts holding the tray with the forth hole in the tray looking bad, or buy another tray and do the right thing. 🙂 (A $30 mistake on my part as this was the cost of the plastic tray, plus finding another screw bolt & nut for the forth hole).
