Cutting Hole for Wires in Foil Mast: Advice Needed

I am running three 8 awg wires down my Chinese foil mast to the rear mast clamp and onwards into the tube. Should I cut a horizontal slot, a vertical slot or drill three separate holes – vertically or horizontally? Looks like no easy task fishing the wires out of the hole from inside the mast and then making an extremely tight turn back towards the tube. All suggestions much appreciated!

see my built, cut sideway 45°, i drill 3 holes, but if i do it again i will remove the material between holes

for the wires, use some pouder or wd40, starting to slide up the red wire on the pic then the middle and keep the one running in the middle of the mast at last (the one that have more room)

no fishing wires , you start from the holes and push it up, at least that’s the way i did it…

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Thanks very much Alexandre. I had not considered a diagonal slot – makes sense!

yes the wires stay flat, much easier, i was a little nervous when i drilled my brand new takuma mast…

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@sunrise305 I would do it the same ways as Alexandre , keep hole size to a minimum. also very important to remove sharp corners as they can easily damage the insulator when you pull wires trough.

you also want to keep bend radius as large as possible to avoid damaging insulator. but this is not as large of a problem if you are using silicone wires. they are very forgiving.

i think the best practice is pulling wires from motorend and up through the slot, also use a lubricant as noted.

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All good advice Hiorth. Thank you. I appreciate the tips! Yes, the wire is 8 gauge silicone high temp.

so how did you cut the holes, drill? saw, dremel? bit?

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