After composing myself from mis-cutting the aileron bell crank to aileron push rod, I picked up where I left off on the aileron bell crank to stick push rod and drilled the ends to accommodate the 6 blind rivets used to hold the threaded rod end.  I again used masking tape to mark the location of the 6 holes as follows:

• The push rod is 1.125" in diameter.  This gives a circumference of 3.53".  When I divided the circumference by 6, each hole was drilled .58" apart.
• The flange for the threaded rod end will be inserted .5" into the push rod tube.  I placed the rivet holes .25" from the end of the push rod.

Using the spring loaded center punch kept the drill bit from wandering when I started drilling the hole.  Without center punching the hole, I couldn't keep the drill bit properly centered on the curved surface.

I drilled the holes in three stages.  I started drilling with a size #50 drill bit, then drilled to size #40, and finally drilled the holes to size #30.

I clecoed the rod end to the push rod to hold it in place.  The threaded rod end fits fairly snug in the tube, but I didn't want the thing to shift while I was drilling and then an oblong hole or a hole that didn't line up.  It was quick to throw a cleco or two in and it resulted in perfect alignment of all the holes.

Mix up a little epoxy primer and a couple of blind rivets and you have a finished aileron push rod.  I did deviate slightly from the plans in that I used 3 MSP-42 blind rivets and 3 Cherrymax rivets per end.  I have a lot of faith in the strength of a Cherrymax rivet so I figured that using them may add a margin of strength to the riveted connection.  At 50 cents per rivet, I didn't want to fill all 24 holes with Cherrymax rivets.

The aileron bell crank to stick push rods are done for now.  On to the next wing task.