So now I really need some help. The other day one of the Ideal 18s at my club got hit by lightning. It blew two holes, each about the size of a golf ball, right through the sides of the hull right at the waterline -- one at each chain plate. So this made me decide to go ahead and take care of grounding my mast, and now I've really gotten myself into trouble.
I decided to go ahead and drill and tap the top of a keel bolt to create an attachment point. See prior thread discussing this approach at http://www.sailnet.com/forums/electrical-systems/63933-question-re-grounding-mast.html. I drilled out the hole and used a hand tap on it. I tried fitting in the #10 silicon bronze bolt I had for it, and it was a bit stiff. So I went to run the tap into the hole again, and before I knew it I had snapped the tap off. Grrrr. Sometimes I really impress myself with my own stupidity.
I cannot get the stub out. There is nothing to grab, I've tried using my special set of bits made to remove stripped screws and I've tried drilling it out. The thing is high carbon steel and is quite resistant to these efforts. If anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate it.
Alternatively, if I leave it in there, any thoughts on corrosion issues? Would be very unhappy to have this cause corrosion of my brand new silicon bronze keel bolt.
Thanks in advance.
I decided to go ahead and drill and tap the top of a keel bolt to create an attachment point. See prior thread discussing this approach at http://www.sailnet.com/forums/electrical-systems/63933-question-re-grounding-mast.html. I drilled out the hole and used a hand tap on it. I tried fitting in the #10 silicon bronze bolt I had for it, and it was a bit stiff. So I went to run the tap into the hole again, and before I knew it I had snapped the tap off. Grrrr. Sometimes I really impress myself with my own stupidity.
I cannot get the stub out. There is nothing to grab, I've tried using my special set of bits made to remove stripped screws and I've tried drilling it out. The thing is high carbon steel and is quite resistant to these efforts. If anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate it.
Alternatively, if I leave it in there, any thoughts on corrosion issues? Would be very unhappy to have this cause corrosion of my brand new silicon bronze keel bolt.
Thanks in advance.