Hi Folks,

Having broken a rudder, I ordered a new one through my local shop--it came undrilled (not what I'd expected). Any suggestions for drilling the while plastic (other than keeping the drill speed on the slow side so it doesn't burn the hole)?

What's particularly annoying is that the replacement isn't exactly the same size as the original blade (it's just slightly smaller fore & aft). I don't want the location of the bolt hole for the upper casting to be too close to the aft/top corner--that's where it broke last time. So, should I split the difference or put all the difference on the forward side?

Also, anyone have any bright ideas for clamping the thing to the drill-press table so that the holes are perpendicular to the top of the blade? (It's not exactly a nice flat shape....)

(Should I have ordered another part number to get one pre-drilled or is there some reason I haven't thought of for it to be a drill-your-own exercise?)

I'm also having to drill holes for the upper casting to connect to the tiller arm, but my thought was to just get the rudder drilled and the upper casting attached to it so I can fine-tune the angle of the tiller arm so it matches the other side (using the crossbar to judge correct angle).

Any thoughts and suggestions appreciated!