Hah I'm glad this started a little something! I had to put it down overnight.
Im willing to try to do this for you. My center drills should cut out the tap. Then drill out the hole to remove all the damage and plug it with an aluminum rod. Did you want to drill/tap another hole in the plug or in a spot like 180 degrees of the plug?
ZK - thank you so much, I just may be in contact
I do not know where you live or what resources are available. I would suggest that you find a machine shop that has an EDM. The process has bailed me out on numerous aluminum motor cycle heads with broken cover screws in them.
For some context, I have a small harbor freight drill press, a couple rotary tools and lots of hand files. (I really enjoy hand sculpting parts out of aluminum)
Funnily enough, I raised this little drill press on a
cinder block to bore the nipple hole deeper on this saber!
I've gotten some small taps like this out by using a spring powered center punch to shatter what was left of the tap. It's worked for me a couple times.
This just happened to me over the weekend...now I have something to try to salvage it, thanks!
Thanks you two - Adam that's a pretty good idea, I can't see the tap piece yet, it's in there deep. let me see if I can dremel out the area further to expose it. It's a 4-40, so rather small.
I really hope this thread comes up in searches for when this happens to other people
Hmm..I
have blanked holes before, let me dig up some photos of crap I've done it with... a Bapty Stormtrooper blaster and actually this very lightsaber - at least with the control box I just drilled the wrong sized hole. You can BARELY see the half of a circle above the fake lever on the lightsaber box
I somehow broke a tap off in one of these solid cores, and I was able to drill around it and knock it out. That core was going to be covered by the outer tube anyway so it's basically filed down and hidden inside
I guess I need to get a new 4-40 tap anyways!