Making consistent spaced holes on Drill Press

I am looking for a good way to make consistently spaced holes on drill press. I need to make about 20 holes 1/2 inch apart in a straight line. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Joe

Reply to
jjscis
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I'm curious to see what shortcuts other people use, but I'll describe what I'd do. The straight line part is easy - set up a fence or clamp a board to your DP table so the bit hits your workpiece where you want it to for the first hole. For the spacing, I'd use a ruler against the top of the workpiece and mark every 1/2". Then line up that mark with a corresponding mark on your "fence", and drill away. Or, if you have a thick ruler or if you clamped a ruler to your "fence" board, you could just make one line on your workpiece, and align that with the 1/2" marks on the ruler/fence. Let me know if my description isn't clear... Andy

Reply to
Andy

If the holes go all the way through you can drill your first hole, move the piece 1/2" over and drill down through the first hole into the table with a hand drill. Grab a piece of appropriately sized dowel and push it through the hole in the workpiece into the hole in the table, thus locking the piece in place (against a fence) 1/2" over from where you started. Now drill your second hole with the drill press and then slide it over and drop your dowel through that hole, into the hole in the table.

Or you could mill up 19 pieces of short 1/2" material to use as spacers against the fence and a stop at the end, removing one each time you drill a hole.

JP

Reply to
Jay Pique

Too many variables for a complete answer ... How many repetitions, accuracy required, depth of hole?

For a one-off, should take only a few minutes to layout the center of the holes with a ruler and pencil, then use a Drill press "fence" to set the edge distance.

If repetitions are required, mark the fence with .5mm pencil marks from a reference edge/point on the workpiece on the first run.

If this is something that you need to do frequently and with consistent accuracy from a reference edge, a la "adjustable shelf pin holes", it may be time to use another tool that will lend itself better to a "jig", like a router.

Reply to
Swingman

snipped-for-privacy@charter.net wrote: > I am looking for a good way to make consistently spaced holes on > drill press. I need to make about 20 holes 1/2 inch apart in a > straight line. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Another Fred Bingham special.

Take a look at his book, Practical Yacht Joinery.

It's covered.

Have fun.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

Set your fence to the proper distance. Use a 2x4 with clamps for this. Lay out two holes appropriately spaced on the stock. Drill the first hole. Move it over and line up for the second hole. Clamp in place. Put a dowel in the previously drilled hole. Put a piece of scrap with the same size hole over that dowel and attach it to the fence. Drill second hole, pull dowel, move it so dowel drops into hole and drill another. Continue on for as many as you like.

Reply to
CW

For that few number of holes I simply mark the center of the hole locations to the edge of the piece. I align that line with a center mark on a temp fence clamped to the DP table. The center mark on the fence is centered with the drill bit.

Basically, clamp the fence at the desired depth and make an alignment mark on a scrap. Drill in the center of that mark, transfer the mark on the scrap to the fence as your center of hole reference mark.

Reply to
Leon

Had I read you answer first I would not have basically repeated it.

Reply to
Leon

"CW" wrote in news:b8IGh.9141$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net:

*snip: Fence pin drop down design*

I'll second that idea.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

Great minds think alike? ;)

Reply to
Swingman

Harder than it sounds if the holes require a "great deal" of accuracy.

What are you do> I am looking for a good way to make consistently spaced holes on

Reply to
Pat Barber

What diameter holes? For shelf supports, I use a piece of pegboard to help guide me. For larger holes, see the suggestions above. Cheers, cc

Reply to
James "Cubby" Culbertson

My own thinking is that if you need to make holes, like for dowels, so that they fit when you try to connect the boards with dowels, the easiest is to just make a guide a piece of board with holes drilled to guide the drill for drilling holes where you really want them. and use it for drilling holes on both pieces to be joined. Then consistent spacing is just not as important. A cross slide on a drill press is also helpful.

Reply to
Ignoramus18212

This is the easiest answer, but it's gotten lost in the other discussions. Get a piece of pegboard, clamp it to the workpiece with the row of pegboard holes lined up over the planned drilling line, then just drill through each hole in the pegboard to get a row of perfectly aligned and perfectly spaced holes. -- Regards --

Reply to
JimR

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