Dinner: crab cakes (Thailand crab meat) and I made apple crisp for dessert because I was slightly miffed at the setback. Well, I just needed an excuse to oberindulge in (brown) sugar.
So what happened? Two things.
One, I neglected to think far enough ahead when I drilled the mount holes through the rear copper disc with pill assembly. The holes are too close to the 3/4” pill tube. The plan was to use flat head machine screws with the holes countersunk. Those heads are even a little larger in diameter and drilling the countersink would be an issue. There are some other hole positions in the heatsink that will likely have been a better choice. If I drill new holes to mate with a different pair of heatsink holes then these two holes become ventilation holes.
Nothing insurmountable.
The second, bigger setback came as I drilled the second hole through the wood piece. I don’t know if the bit was a little too dull or if I used a little too much pressure or speed, or if I somehow got he wood God, Wooden, angry, but the wood piece split with a sharp cracking sound just as the bit penetrated the bottom side.
Not good news. However, we do have some excellent glues available in our modern world. By first attempt at a repair/fix is to use a high quality PVA glue. I liberally applied glue, slipped the pieces together and clamped with a pair of medium spring clamps. The glue strength is best after a 24 hour cure. These glues can make joints where the actual glue line is stronger than the wood. We’ll see how this works out tomorrow sometime.
Drilling into end grain like that for fasteners does come with some risk. I guess I did prove that. Appearance is better with the grain running axially, but as you can see there are downsides.
I’ll be back tomorrow most likely.