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I've been experimenting with different deburring methods for long rows of holes. In the homebuilt help video they show using a piece of vixen file. This method has worked very well, deburring long rows of holes very quickly and effectively for me with the vixen file and following it up with a few passes of a maroon scotch brite pad. This method was not available to me when working on the alclad-based RV.

So my question is this: it seems that this method is much faster than using the deburring bit, and it might be even better than using the bit because there isn't the inevitable slight countersink of the hole edge. So is there any reason that this should not be the preferred method for long rows of holes? (Excluding the skins, of course)

samiam,
I am a glutton for punishment, so I always do each hole individually where I can. However, some places you can't. The backside of the control surface skins, where the hinge rivets is a good example. Because of the angle the skin is bent at there is no chance to deburr with a normal tool. In that case I do exactly as you describe and it works fine. I do use a normal mini bastard file rather than a vixen file, but either should be ok.

A 3" abrasive disc in a cordless drill has got to be the fastest possible way to deburr rows of holes or skins. With an added benefit of having no chance to over deburr or countersink.

I initially tried the method of de-burring with a file and did not like the scratches the edge of the file made. Switched to a spoon shaped small file and rounded the edges with grinder. That worked, but eventually splurged on one of the Burr-away tools that will de-burr both sides of the hole in one pass. Modified it to fit hex chuck on a 400 RPM power screw driver and mostly used that whenever possible from then on. $40 for one of those tools seems a lot, but was spending more time de-burring than anything else so worth every cent.

David A.