Drill and Hex wrench extension

[hemmjo]

As my tractor goes back together, I am repairing some long neglected body issues.

One of the hood panels is assembled from 2 panels spot welded together. Over its 68 years bouncing over fields, some of the welds have broken. The broken welds allow the panels to move, squeak and put more stress on the remaining weld spots. I wanted to put some machine screws and nuts in place of the welds, but I could not get a drill into the tight spot. I would like to have seen the welder get into there!!!!

I had two 12” extensions that accept 1/4” shank bits. Typically spade bits and used for roughing residential electrical wiring.

I found some 10-32 button head machine screws in my screw drawer that require 3/16 hole. Fig 1 shows the small adapter bushing I made to hold the 3/16 bit in the 1/4” extension.



Fig 2 shows the tight space I needed to work in. It took two extensions to get the drill in to a good spot



In Fig 3 the screws are installed. I discovered after drilling the first hole, my old hand was not able to get into that space to put the screws in or to work a wrench.



The adapter I made to hold the screws for installation, is shown in fig 4, along with the drill and adapter bushing



It is amazing how much those two small screws tightened up the panels.

[DIYer]

Thanks hemmjo! We've added your Drill and Hex Wrench Extension to our Drilling and Drill Presses category,
as well as to your builder page: hemmjo's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Drill and Hex Wrench Extension by hemmjo

tags: drill bit

[Frank S]

A good solution for a difficult repair.
yes many spotwelded panels seem to defy the logic of how they were made. Almost always with special tool attachments and or assembled in a particular order allowing for the difficult welds to be performed before being buried by another panel.