Nervous about drilling into tailgate

A good fabricator makes mistakes, but only once.

Roto- broaches are nice, and the Greenlee step drill bit works well on sheet metal too.
 
A good fabricator makes mistakes, but only once.

Roto- broaches are nice, and the Greenlee step drill bit works well on sheet metal too.
Step bits are okay. They all suffer from the same problem. The starting bit wears and gets dull long before the rest of the bit so you have to start pre drilling starter holes and now you're back to using a drill bit.
 
For drilling a painted surface, I like to pre cool and post cool. Sarcasm yes, but I had to.
 
Step bits are okay. They all suffer from the same problem. The starting bit wears and gets dull long before the rest of the bit so you have to start pre drilling starter holes and now you're back to using a drill bit.
True.

I got in the habit of drilling a pilot hole first to add some longevity to my step drills.
 
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To be honest, I have done it myself. I try to be more careful now a days.
Buddy showed me a neat trick using a split collar and a screw on the outside to clamp on a drill at any depth. Works really really well and keep from punching into stuff like fuel tanks or electronics.
 
Here's another consideration. Shavings from the drilling operation fall to the bottom inside of the tailgate where you can't get to them. They then rust...
 
Experts get to be experts through lots of experience. No one gets lots of experience without making mistakes. I make them just like everyone else does, I just make far less. But, I am not an expert on everything, just everything I am expert at.
One reasons experts make mistakes is the same reason the have more experience and are experts.....they tackle a lot more crap. A lot more scenarios. A lot of things they've never done or fixed that somebody shouldn't have done.

Smooth seas never made a skillful sailor.

Just like Blaine's first post about the outie.....he knows what can go wrong. He knows what can bite you.

That's a pro.
 
Those bags are pretty cool. I did a similar thing with a molle panel and molle pouches. infinitely customizable

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Here's another consideration. Shavings from the drilling operation fall to the bottom inside of the tailgate where you can't get to them. They then rust...
Put some grease on the drill bit tip to catch those shavings.
 
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Put some grease on the drill bit tip to catch those shavings.
Set your drill bits on an old speaker magnet for about 20 seconds before you drill. Has worked for me for years. Just clean it off after and all done!
 
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