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TR2/3/3A 1960 3A Grill question

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Tinkerman

Tinkerman

Darth Vader
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My repro grill is, as yours probably is, stamped out of AL. My question has to do with the flashing around the punched out mounting holes in the grill. There is quite a bit of flashing around those holes and I'm wondering how enthusiastic I shoud be in cleaning it up. I plan on drilling the holes but should I address the mound left behind by the stamping process or just leave it alone. I do tend to over engineer things which leads to more work on occasion than I need to be doing. Soft metal of that type tends to be a pain because it loads abrasive tools up very fast.
Your thoughts and comments greatly appreciated, Thanks
Tinkerman
 
Mornin, I'm going to have to work on my grill today so if you have any thoughts on the best way to clean up the flashing from the punched mounting holes I really would appreciate hearing from you. The grill is out in front of god and everyone so I want it to do it right.
Thanks, dick
 
Hey Dick,

I have one of those stamped grills, but I never took it out of the box, so I don't have a good picture of what you are dealing with. But, in general, when I have to remove aluminum flashing, I like a carbide burr on a cheapo die grinder. If you grind a lot and the burr heats up, it will start to clog with the aluminum. I get around that by spraying the burr every 5 minutes or so with light oil or WD40. The oil does a great job of keeping the burr teeth clear.

Other techniques I've used are sandpaper rolls and sandpaper flapper wheels. They can be run on a drill or the same die grinder. For very thin flashing that is not extensive, s simple file works well.
 
I have an old (abused) counter-sink drill bit that I use (lightly) for cleaning up holes -- clear the swarf left after drilling and leave a slight bevel on the rim of the hole. One of these:

url
 
Thanks for the thoughts. I got out my dremel with a shaped abrasive head on it and it turned out to be a non-event. Did all 8 holes in less than 10 minutes. As I have said I tend to over engineer some of this stuff. Anyway thanks again for th thoughts!

Dick
 
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