Stupid mistake attempting to repair furling strut

[NigelCraig]

There was one section of the luff groove on the aluminium furling strut for the jib on my Crabber which narrowed and I foolishly tried to widen it by inserting the blade of a chisel and rotating it. All I achieved was to put a number of small nicks in the aluminium which could possibly snag the sail. Is it possible to file down aluminium to get a smooth surface? - I had an idea that was difficult.

 

[TQA]

There was one section of the luff groove on the aluminium furling strut for the jib on my Crabber which narrowed and I foolishly tried to widen it by inserting the blade of a chisel and rotating it. All I achieved was to put a number of small nicks in the aluminium which could possibly snag the sail. Is it possible to file down aluminium to get a smooth surface? - I had an idea that was difficult.

Only problem is that ali can clog the file.

Traditional engineering remedy was to chalk the file.

Finish with a fine file, fine emory or wet and dry.

 

[VicS]

Little nicks will file ok. Its not as though you will be filing off masses of metal.

if the damage is very slight emery cloth or some wet & dry might be adequate.

If you have one of those "Dremels" or similar combitool maybe a use for it.


The trouble is that you will be removing the anodising!

 

[NigelCraig]

Little nicks will file ok. Its not as though you will be filing off masses of metal.

if the damage is very slight emery cloth or some wet & dry might be adequate.

If you have one of those "Dremels" or similar combitool maybe a use for it.


The trouble is that you will be removing the anodising!

Good point - removing a larger area of anodising will probably make it worse - perhaps better to just put a bit of electrical tape over the nicks so that the luff of the sail doesn't catch.