6" #30 Drill Bit Needed

I am glad that I got to work on the plane to night, as this could possibly safe me some valuable time waiting for new tools to arrive. I put together the new set of bolts, brackets and wear plates on the left side, to see how accessible the template and its holes would be for match-drilling. As it is imperative that the drill bit would be aligned perpendicular during the drill process to ensure a straight hole for the bolts, I also wanted to see how well the reflection of the drill bit on the template could be used to ensure that.
Putting the assembly together was the easy part, although it could help to have a second pair of hands for this.




It turned out that none of my drill bits would actually get the job done. The problem is that a 12" long drill bit is almost touching the back rest and wouldn't allow to attach a drill to it. And the short jobber bit wouldn't work because the chuck of the drill would be interfering with the side of the U-section. I measured and calculated and came up with a 6" bit to be perfect. I ordered one in #30 and one in 1/4", so opening up the match-drilled #30 hole would not get further delayed. I could probably get a usable 1/4" bit from a hardware store (or I might even have one in my toolbox ) but the shipping for just one drill bit is more than 200% of the bit's value and so I just added another one to it.

I hope the bits arrive before the weekend...