our preferred method for drilling through a ball bearing hard plate that works fairly well for us. My method is to drill until I hit a ball bearing and then pack the hole with steel stick, wait 15 minutes, put in a new drill bit and drill through it. Sometimes I will have to pack it with steel stick a second time, but not usually. This time, when I drilled up to the ball bearing, the tip of the bit broke off, so I had to spend time trying to get the tip out. I tried to pry it loose with a pick, and break it up with a hammer and punch, but noth- ing was working. I decided to pack it with steel stick, wait 15 minutes and then drill it out. An hour later, I was finally looking at the external relocker. I took a probe and could move the relocker but when I used the handle to bump it, nothing moved. The relocker was not what was stopping the handle cam. “This was using up time and drill bits, and we weren’t making any progress.” Drilling for the Lock bolt Aſter some more looking into the holes with the scope, I decided to drill for the lock bolt. I didn’t want to be dead center of the lock bolt, because the way this one worked with the pivoting section, I wanted to be on the solid portion. I drilled my hole up to the bearing and then checked with the scope and saw that I had landed perfectly in the center of the triangle of three bearings. This wasn’t good. I decided that since all I needed to do was move the lock bolt, I would take a small bit and drill between the bearings, so I could get a probe in and wiggle it. The hole went quickly and I was up to the lock bolt, but there was no way I could move the lock bolt. It was time for another decision: Do I go through the three bearings or is the inter- nal trigger fired? I decided that there was a good chance that the internal trigger was fired, so I measured to start drilling for that target. This is when I realized that I had a problem. I had used the Strongarm small round vacuum rig with my drill rig for the external relocker hole and for the lock bolt hole, but it couldn’t be used for this hole be- cause it ended up over one of the other holes and wouldn’t create a vacuum. I tried putting tape over the hole to seal it, but that didn’t work. I went back to the van for the lever rig. It was also around this time that I ran out of steel stick, and I had used the wood plug with the ball buster, but that just didn’t work well for me. The Fast Track to Success There’s no better, faster way to advance your knowledge — and your career — than by attending SAFETECH 2014. Show Highlights World-class education Bazaar night The Harry C. Miller Manipulation Contest The SAVTA Kickoff Party and Live Auction The Safe & Vault Technicians Association Convention and Trade Show 2014 May 5-May 10, 2014 Hilton Lexington Downtown Lexington, Kentucky Classes Monday, May 5-Friday, May 9, 2014 Trade Show Saturday, May 10, 2014 WWW.ALOA.ORG JANUARY 2014 KEYNOTES 19
