[ARC5] Hole for octal socket

[Robert Eleazer]

By the way, the key to using a flycutter with a hand drill is to use Drill Stops on the center bit.

Drill stops, for those of you unfamiliar with the device, is a little steel "doughnut" with a set screw that you can use to set the depth the drill will penetrate.  I got a cheap set from J.C. Whitney decades ago.  You can set the drill stop on the center bit so that the rotating bit just touches the material to be cut.  That way the side-to-side tendency of the handheld drill does not matter so much.  That, combined with the ultra low speed, makes a hand held drill use possible and probably even less dangerous than using a drill press.

The package the Flycutter comes in says "Do Not Use In A Handheld Power Drill!"  To that should be added, "Or anything else at over 6 RPM."

I was glad that I used a flycutter on a very slow power drill to cut the required inspection holes in the bottom of the wings of my Ercoupe; use of a hole cutter saw would have resulted in serious damage to parts of the internal structure.  But I concluded two things:

1. Airplanes have two wings so you have one to practice on first.

2. Flycutters are so named because use of one for many hours produces an earnest desire to take it outside and see how far you can make it fly.  
    

Wayne