# Drill press jig



## dparker (Sep 29, 2007)

Hello All:  The following pictures are of a drill press jig I built several years ago from a article in HSM I believe.  It has been used quite a bit for cross drilling rods and holding small parts that will not fit in the vise.
There are 3 holes in the bottom of the cross V slot to allow drill through of the clamped parts.





The rod in the chuck has a 90* included angle tip to center the V slot under the spindle, then tighten the mounting bolt to prevent jig movement.




Clamp in place and ready to drill through the center of the rod.




Holding a small part and drilling over the V at the end of the jig.  The pins stored in the far end of the jig can be removed and mounted in the chuck to align the spindle to the holes in the cross V slot.




 The jig bolts through a table slot and is tightened by the hand operated bolt, just loosen the bolt and the movement is almost infinite.  You can turn the clamp around and move the position of it to accommodate many sized parts above the V slot at the end.  I put flat ended setscrews in the unused mounting holes for the clamp so the back bolt would not be compromised for location of tightening.
This is easily made out of hot rolled steel and easy to install or remove.  Most of the time I just keep it mounted hanging off the back edge of the table and swing it around for use when needed.
         Don


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## lugnut (Sep 29, 2007)

Very usefull looking tool, Don.  Thanks for posting it.  I plan on making one this afternoon.  Keep the ideas coming  
Mel


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## Bogstandard (Sep 29, 2007)

Thats a nice looking bit of kit you have there Don.
It must save hours on trying to centre round bar for drilling.
As Mel said above, keep 'em coming.
With all this tooling being rediscovered, us lot on this site should have the best equipped workshops in the business.

John


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## tattoomike68 (Sep 29, 2007)

Years ago I made a small shaft fixture like that for doing cross holes and woodruff keys in small shafts. Mine was just a block of 6" X 4" X 1" with 2 vee's milled in it , some through holes and some tapped holes.

Mine mounted in a mill vice and was very handy for small shaft mill work. Mosty the woodruff keys where getting to the spot for the key and keeping it well suported was tricky.


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## Hexbasher (Sep 29, 2007)

there's a smaller scaled version of that jig in one of the machinist bedside reader book's

i've been in a few shops where they'd just milled a v-groove in the drill press table

and i would have done that to our main drill press at my shop but the table is too big and/or too big of a pain in the ass to mill it

me, i just use my v-blocks, i made a nice set while i was in school as well i made a toolmakers v-block too just for something to do...i couldn't get by without my v-blocks....for really small things i just mill a fixture and toss it, or remachine it for something else

i have plans to mill, harden and grind afew style of bench blocks and fixtures later on


made these at school




all the v-blocks and parallels ware hardened to 55 and 57 RWH and they are ground and lapped...the stepblocks in the back there are just blackened in the oven


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## cfellows (Nov 1, 2007)

Don,

What are the dimensions of the piece of metal you used for the fixture, particularly the thickness?

Thx...
Chuck


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## dparker (Nov 2, 2007)

Chuck:  The base for the jig is 9" X 3" X 3/4" thick.  The "V" is in the middle and about 5/16" deep.  The clamp is 3 1/2" long by 1 1/8" wide by 1/2" thick.  I quickly looked in the Bedside Readers and could not find the jig so it may well have come from a article in HSM or Projects In Metal.  If you need more dimensions or clarification I can try to make a sketch and take a photo of it for you and post it in a couple of days. Thank you for your interest.
Don


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## cfellows (Nov 2, 2007)

Thanks, Don.  I justed needed to get an idea.  I'm thinking I might build two of these, one about your size and a smaller,  2 x 6 x 5/8" version.

I already had a 2 x 6 x 1/2 cold rolled plate with a threaded 1/4" hole and a slotted clamp that has come in mighty handy to hold small parts for drilling.  It's particularly useful for holding two parts together for drilling bolt holes so the pieces line up afterwords.  After seeing your jig, I decided it would be really useful to mill the v groove for round stock and to cut a slot in the base to hold the jig down when drilling... save wear and tear on knuckles!

I did look through the HSM and Projects in Metal / Mashinist Workshop index on the Village Press Website, but couldn't find the jig.  I do have a complete set of both mags, but the new indexing system on HSM's website leaves a lot to be desired since it doesn't have an search capability.

Thanks again for posting the pictures.  Very useful project!

Chuck


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## Wolfie01 (Jun 29, 2018)

cfellows said:


> Thanks, Don.  I justed needed to get an idea.  I'm thinking I might build two of these, one about your size and a smaller,  2 x 6 x 5/8" version.
> 
> I already had a 2 x 6 x 1/2 cold rolled plate with a threaded 1/4" hole and a slotted clamp that has come in mighty handy to hold small parts for drilling.  It's particularly useful for holding two parts together for drilling bolt holes so the pieces line up afterwords.  After seeing your jig, I decided it would be really useful to mill the v groove for round stock and to cut a slot in the base to hold the jig down when drilling... save wear and tear on knuckles!
> 
> ...


Can you please post a link to the website.


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## goldstar31 (Jun 29, 2018)

The finger plate dates- as far as I am aware- to a British Lieutenant Commander WT Barker back to the time that England had a Navy! I recall that the late George H. Thomas described it and many other gadgets in his Model Engineer's Workshop Manual book. There is a kit available from Hemingwaykits in the UK.

I have a rather odd vise( and several vices which I don't mention) which is a baby turret vice from a firm called Dohm Ltd formerly of Victoria street, London. Again, I've described it several times here etc.
I've also a little  three way vise which I bought from RDG tools in the UK and this substitutes for the proper vise on my old Mark 1 Clarkson tool and cutter grinder and milling machine. This  vise is far superior ( IMO) because it is calibrated in degrees which the Clarkson desperately needed.  Digressing somewhat, the Chinese made Deckel clone Universal grinder is also better equipped like the. home construction Stent grinder.

Of course, I have also a set or two of dental instruments of torture!!

Regards

N


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