Before I finished installing hull panels, I wanted to get the centerboard uphaul tube installed, while it was still easy to work in that area. This tube lines the hole that the rope runs through to raise the centerboard, and prevents wear to the hole and to the rope.
The uphaul line is 1/4" diameter, so I got a short length of tubing from the hardware store that is 5/16" ID, and 3/8" OD.
First, I drilled the hole. I wanted to ensure that the hole was perpendicular to the bulkhead, and didn't tear out on the far side. So I drilled a hole through a scrap block on the drill press to use a a drill guide, and clamped another block on the inside of the centerboard trunk to prevent tear-out. I drilled a pilot hole and then followed that up with a 7/16" bit.
I cut a short length of tubing, flared the end, and inserted a length of 5/16" dowel and taped it on. This let me manipulate the tubing, rotating it to apply thickend epoxy and pulling it through the hole.
I clamped it in place with a stick until the epoxy cured.
Here's the inside, flared edge.
And this is the other side.
And this shows the 1/4" uphaul line exiting the tube. At this point I considered leaving this as is and calling it done. The rope pulls straight out of the hole and into a turning block, so I think that would work fine. At this point the flaring tool doesn't work, and trying to shape it with a ball pein hammer seemed likely to mess things up.
After some thought, I started rummaging around in my 1/4" bolt bin, and found this flat-head machine screw. My plan was to insert this through the tube with a washer and nut on the inside and flare out the end by tightening the nut in a controlled manner.
Here's the screw Inserted in the tube.
And the resulting flare after tightening up the nut a bit. Worked great.
But it was sticking out a little too far, so I sanded it back using a little disk in a die grinder, and flared again.
And then I did follow up with a little light tapping from the ball pein hammer to fllatten it out just a bit more. Job done!
