Wood coming back to life, brass tubes in cabin sole

Short working day today so only two tasks: drilling & mounting brass tubes in cabin sole and Owatrol onto ceiling planks.

I started with some experimenting on drill size and type which would best fit to brass tubes. The tubes come from US-made machine so nothing there is metric - unlike my drills. After some trials it turned out that 12mm spade drills give the best fit and clean holes in wood.
First I drilled clean pilot holes with small drill - to give me exact exit points on the back surface as original holes were covered with epoxy. Next I drilled, on the back side, shallow exit holes, to prevent wood splinters on “exit wound”.

With heart-rate increased I started drilling from top side. All went well and clean apart from the fact that my drill battery went flat on the third panel. Missed to load the accu so the job will not be finished today.

I moved then to brass installation on pre-drilled panels. I used FARM 100 bitumen bedding compound which should fill any voids, prevent condensation and keep the tubes in place yet enable easy removal for re-varnishing of wood.

The black goo is sticky and messy to work with so it takes time to cover assembled components while keeping myself and everything around free from black mess.
Coated tubes are then inserted into sole panels and pressed in with a twisting move - to spread bedding evenly in the hole. Occasionally tubes’ sharp edges were catching wood on their way down, causing ugly tear-out on exit surface. I will need to repair it with thickened epoxy later.

Squeezed-out bedding needs to be gathered quickly, otherwise one needs to use mineral spirit (lacknafta) to clean it - which I forgot to take with me.
Installed tubes are a bit proud, due to pressed collar, which is exactly what I wanted. They will hold shoes on otherwise smooth floor. The effect is pleasing although should I knew how long and messy this job is I would simply plug these screw holes with small mahogany plugs.

The remains of black bedding will be cleaned with solvent on next visit.
Brass tubes are a few millimetres longer than my wood assemblies so I needed to cut the protruding parts on the back. That inevitably caused some scratches on the wood finish but that will be fixed during summer, when temperature allows epoxy touch-ups.

In-between drilling and brass installation I was soaking ceiling planks with Owatrol D1. I had five of them cleaned from the last time, greyish now after sanding. First coats of oil brought back the life and colour onto mahogany.

Original four planks, which were painted with boiled linseed oil, accepted only two coats of Owatrol and stopped taking more. Fifth plank, which originally was coated with polyurethane, was very thirsty and took six coats to saturate the wood.

It’s a real joy to use this oil - unlike while varnishing one does not need to bother about wet edge or too much varnish build-up.
The only trick with Owatrol is to wipe out all remaining oil after wood is saturated. If any wet spot is left it will harden into shiny surface looking ugly against satin finish around. I used oil-soaked rag and wiped all planks before they started to cure. When I was leaving the shipyard for home the planks were getting dry already, showing smooth, matt and silky finish.