How to Drill Perfectly Centered Holes in Round Stock!

[th62]

That sure will work but will not be as accurate, if the drill chuck doesn't perfectly line up with the vice or chuck on the table, you will force it out of precision. The method in the video can be adjusted down to 0.01 mm (0.4 Thou) or beyond, depending on your setup.

Obviously, if the work is spinning and you bring it down onto a centre drill it will centre itself. It's no diffent from drilling a hole in round stock on a lathe with a centre drill in the tailstock.

Obviously the centre drill has to be centred, but it's not that critical.

I have no need to do it thisvway because I have a lathe, but I did it thisvway for many years before I bought a lathe.

Still, if your happy doing it your way, good luck to you

There are many ways of doing things, accepting 'your' way as the best, most accurate and onlynway of doing things is a fool's errand.

[Frank S]

Me I'm lazy I usually just chuck things up in the lathe and spin them running a center drill into them. If I am extremely worried about being absolutely concentric with the OD then I'll toss on the 4 jaw and use a magnetic base dial indicator to center it up, when the needle doesn't move more than half a mark in either direction it is close enough

[engineer steve]

That works perfectly (oops I said it again) but not everyone has a lathe, also if you have a bigger part with a round feature that needs 'perfect' center drilling, this method comes in handy. If you need to center a lot of parts it is indeed nice to have a wiggler.

[Frank S]

That works perfectly (oops I said it again) but not everyone has a lathe, also if you have a bigger part with a round feature that needs 'perfect' center drilling, this method comes in handy. If you need to center a lot of parts it is indeed nice to have a wiggler.

Yep, I never said the method of finding center in a mill or drill wasn't needed. And your method is somewhat easier than X,Y kiss off divide the diameter by 2

A dial indicator mounted on a boring head is a must when trying to match up to a previously bored location Chasing zero zero boils down to Occam's razor. You can go half the distance remaining to near infinity and still never find true zero