How to Drill Perfectly Centered Holes in Round Stock!

[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