Thank you Mr Pete for another great shop tip, love this one. I heard you gripping about the usps not getting mail through , I wanted you to know they always get my bills to me on time every month😊

Pipe ground clamps are great for quick small things on the drill press if you're in a pinch. Variable one-size-fits-most too.

Not for the first time it looks like your seeing my lesson plans! we get our apprentices to make one of these as a 1 day exercise. Simple but, turning milling and bench work under some pressure and they need to work together for machine access. Another Mr Pete video to reference in a UK apprenticeship. Thank you.

Rank amateur that I am, I have a habit of buying any Starrett tool that I find for cheap at estate and yard sales, even if I don’t know how to use it. I bought one of those mics a while back. Now I see it in use for the first time. Always learning.

You should show us how the make  a Peterson Center Finder jig.😊

Take two pieces of angle iron, open sides down so it looks like two upside down V's welded to a plate. With the twist drill in the drill press, lower the bit until it centers in the crotch of the two angles. Make sure the flutes touch the V's. Now you've located center. Clamp your device to the table without disturbing anything.

Place your stock in the poor man's v-block and drill your hole.

I added a hold down bolt over center by adding two vertical bars and a horizontal bar over center that has a 3/4 inch nut spot welded to the horizontal piece that accepts the 3/4 inch hold down bolt.

I don't know if it's within 3 or 4 thou or not, it might be, but it certainly is well above the axle cotter pin tolerance.

After a lifetime of hard labor as a self-employed carpenter with no helper, and twenty three years as self-employed farmer with no helper, my strength and eyesight ain't what they use to be, this simple jig has made my life a bit more tolerable.

Reinforcement---  When I used to teach basic blacksmithing my mentor said: "tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em, tell 'em, then tell 'em what you told 'em".

These are great tools for centering. I recommend getting metal pointers as the plastic ones can break fairly easy.

I really like the short topics video series.  Please keep sharing your knowledge!

Nice

Elegantly simple solution. Thanks, Mr Pete!

Thank you for all your videos Lyle.
Your teaching experience shines through in your careful speech delivery.
You even pronounced “Fragile” correctly…
We’ve just  the words Aluminium and Solder to work on.
Long may you run

Why didn't I think of that?  It is so simple once I see it!  Nice short video Me. Pete

I USE a rotary indexer that we keep mounted on one end of the table on our old Index vertical mill. It has a 9" 3 jaw chuck with a 2" spindle bore. The indexer has been pre centered in the X direction, and a length of material made to fit between the back of the table and the front of the column. To drill a cross hole, (and to mill a hex erc,) the round is placed in the chuck, and the table cranked up against the pre made length of material. The indexer is keyed to the T-slot of the table, so if removed or used in the horizontal position, it can be easily  recounted  in the correct position. It usually stays there because there is still plenty of room for a vise toward the other end of the table, plus we have 3 other vertical mills.

Close enough for government work.  Thanks for the video keep on keeping on.

I would love to see a video about drilling a second hole that is on the same plane as the first at the opposite end of the tubing.  That one always get me

Thanks!   3 thou difference means that it is only off by half of that, .0015"!  Also, like that mic.

When I first got into machining as a hobby, I bought a center finder much like the one shown in your video.  It was advertised for use in wood working.  I thought why not metal!  I have used it when the accuracy was not that important.  I always wondered how accurate it really was.  Although, I'm sure results will differ it is good to know for most projects it works pretty good.  Thanks!  KOKO!

Handy tool.

For accuracy, use of a center drill is neccessary since otherwise the drill bit will nearly always wonder off-center.