drilled hole that wasn't square :(

[Scott F]

Well, I have my limbs and riser block done on my first 3 piece t/d so I took it over to my neighbor's house to use his drill press and the worst possible thing happened.

After drilling the first hole through my limb and into the riser block I noticed that it wasn't plumb.  The hole is grossly out of square.  Is this able to be fixed?  I was thinking about filling the holes with some epoxy and trying to drill it again.  Is this going to work or in your opinion, is this doomed to fail?

Scott

[Trux Turning]

Glue a hardwood dowel into the riser- use smooth on or a good epoxy on the dowel. Let it cure and redrill.

[Scott F]

I'm sort of nervous to use the same hole because of a response that I received on a different forum.  In short, it read that someone tried this same fix and the insert pulled out during a shot and he ended up losing an eye.  I'd love to fix this bow, but I love my eyes more!

It is a Bingham's plan therefore it is 17 inches long.  I may end up filling the hole then drilling a new one in a different spot on the riser, making it a shorter riser.  I was planning on it being a 66" bow, so it may work out alright.  Will this work?

[Trux Turning]

Drilling in a different spot on the riser would be a good solution and it sounds like you have the room to do so- I would still plug the first hole with a glued in hardwood dowel.

[kennym]

Hey Scott,
If you drilled the 5/16 where the 27/64 goes(pilot hole?) The larger bit might clean it up?

Hope I understood that right! LOL

Sounds like you got it covered!

Keep us posted and good luck!

[Scott F]

Thanks Kenny for the wishes of good luck, I'll need it!

Actually, I don't think that the hole was that far out, but it was enough so that my limb bolts didn't sit flush with the surface of my limb.  Thankfully I caught it prior to drilling the larger hole for the threaded insert.  I think that the bigger hole will bore out the mistake.  

I ended up making a wooden plug that was slightly smaller than the 5/16" hole and epoxied it in there with some Smooth On.  I will probably still move the limb bolt location to a new piece of the riser anyhow just for some peace of mind issues if it seems like the right thing to do when I clean off all of this tape that I put on there to glue it up.

David and Kenny, thanks for the help.

[Scott F]

Well I drilled the holes again this time on a quality drill press and it worked out great.  

Since this is my first attempt at a 3 piece t/d bow I didn't want to risk something that isn't safe therefore I elected to shorten the riser and drill a new hole in the riser.  The patch made out of a dowel and Smooth On would have probably worked but I just didn't feel like testing those waters...

On a different forum I was advised not to try and redrill the same hole because someone had tried that, the insert didn't hold, and he lost an eye in the process.  I'm an artillery officer in the USMC and decided that I needed both of my eyes, lol.