This summer, I decided to strip the teak cockpit coaming on my 31. The varnish was just too far gone for more scratch and patch so back to bare it went. After sanding, I had a plug that looked a little weird. Since the labor to build back a varnish coating is a huge time suck, little niggling problems like this are best dealt with before any varnish is applied.
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I like to centerpunch the plug first to stop any drill bit wandering, only this time I was hitting the metal of the screw head.
Normally you can drill into the plug and then chuck up a #8 screw with the head ground off and pop it out but not in this case. Whether it was the years of sanding
on this piece or the factory just did not sink it deep enough, the only way to expose the screw was very, very careful paring with a 1/8 " chisel to expose the screw. Any wrong slip, and you can bugger up the sides of the hole creating an even bigger mess.
Once exposed, the slot was cleared of debris and the screw came out clean with no damage.
It's then a simple matter to sink the hole a bit deeper.
Reinsert the screw and re plug the hole. On trim like this, I typically will dip the plug in varnish, (never glue) before setting it. Only use glue if you are absolutely positive the plug will never have to come out again.
.
I like to centerpunch the plug first to stop any drill bit wandering, only this time I was hitting the metal of the screw head.
Normally you can drill into the plug and then chuck up a #8 screw with the head ground off and pop it out but not in this case. Whether it was the years of sanding
on this piece or the factory just did not sink it deep enough, the only way to expose the screw was very, very careful paring with a 1/8 " chisel to expose the screw. Any wrong slip, and you can bugger up the sides of the hole creating an even bigger mess.
Once exposed, the slot was cleared of debris and the screw came out clean with no damage.
It's then a simple matter to sink the hole a bit deeper.
Reinsert the screw and re plug the hole. On trim like this, I typically will dip the plug in varnish, (never glue) before setting it. Only use glue if you are absolutely positive the plug will never have to come out again.
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