How to Drill Perfectly Centered Holes in Round Stock!

[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.

[rgsparber]

Here is another way:

1) mount the round stock in the 3 jaw chuck with at least 1/2” sticking out. Do not clamp the chuck to the table yet.

2) slide the chuck around until the stock slides into the drill chuck

3) tighten the drill chuck while helping the 3 jaw slide into alignment

4) clamp the 3 jaw to the table

5) loosen the drill chuck and mount the spotting drill in it

You do pick up error in the drill chuck plus spindle runout.

I hope all see how this idea evolved from many of the comments in this thread. All of us are smarter than any one of us.

Rick

[mklotz]

Even in math, though, perfection can be defined, but not achieved.

A (perfect) circle is defined as the locus of points equidistant from a central point. Yet no one has ever constructed a perfect circle.

Irrational numbers are another case. There are numerous infinite series for pi but, even after millions of digits, we don't have an exact value (and never will).

One must be careful. Mathematicians are very careless in their choice of names for mathematical entities. As an example, the solution to the equation:

x² + 1 = 0

was termed an "imaginary" number. There's nothing imaginary about it and it's used widely in many real world applications of math.

They also decided to call numbers equal to their aliquot sums "perfect", e.g. 6 = 1 + 2 + 3. While it's an interesting and fairly rare property, there's nothing "perfect" about it, other than its poorly chosen name.

[nova_robotics]

Drilling perfectly centerd holes in round stock, using my homemade milling machine.

I bought a wiggler. It's basically the same thing, with the added benefit of the dial remaining in the same orientation so you can see it. Works good.

[th62]

So many people going on and on and on about perfect. Give it a rest, bloody ridiculous!

[rgsparber]

So many people going on and on and on about perfect. Give it a rest, bloody ridiculous!

Have you considered unsubscribing from this thread?

Rick

[th62]

I'm interested in the topic, not the definition of perfect. So no, but, since you're clearly more interested in the definition of perfect, why not start your own thread on perfect, rather than try to derail this one?

[nova_robotics]

So many people going on and on and on about perfect. Give it a rest, bloody ridiculous!

The internet in a nutshell; 50% cat videos and 50% pedants desperately waiting for an opportunity to correct someone. Correcting colloquialisms and hyperbole as if they were literal statements not a constructive hobby.

Some people are just incapable of giving somebody a pat on the back and saying "well done." Gotta tear them down and make them regret participating in the first place.

[gargoyle]

B- for initiative. Need to study "TIR." Your mounting "stub" is not centered. Therefore your centering efforts will all have the error of your mount. I posit that you saw a version of this in a catalog or a YouTube, and said "saw it on the Tube, I can do that."

Do it again but this time use a piece of stock four times bigger diameter. Get a combination square and layout the crossing lines to find center at the intersection. Prick the intersection, punch the intersection, drill the intersection. Now you've laid out and performed a center drill that, if you practice, should be accurate to around 3 to 5 thousandths of an inch. No need for new gizmo, you've mastered the skill. Cheers.