After the first tab layup cured I trimmed them down to within about .2″ of the final shape. This took a few hours as these things always seem to. Then I very carefully tried to find a center in each tab template 5/8″ hole. The task is just to drill a 3/8″ clearance hole which I spent far too long trying to get right. In reality it doesn’t matter very much.

Next was carefully drilling out the holes with the 5/8″ removable bit on a 1/4″ long pilot. I used some timber backing to reduce chipping around the edges. It cut a nice hole .625″ or 5/8″

In the third pic you can see the tube that goes through the holes and so back on the main gear mounts. I bought the tubes from a well known canard part supplier. For whatever reason the tubes are not .625″ BUT in fact .630″ at the ends and .642″ in the knurled section. NO WAY are these going to fit.

My plan after discussion with wise engineers is to proceed with the next layup, drill out the holes per plans and then open them up by hand to accept the tubes. THEN set it up on the fuselage and flox the tubes into the holes after a trial setup while ensuring all those complex measurements are again 100% accurate. Quite a job but worthwhile getting it right. Just so much harder due to the oversized tubes. Oh well…. the main thing is to get it right.

Cleaned up tabs

First stage drilling

A problem with sizes