Drilling Alignment Problem

The only thing about the part the way it's cut that is not radially symmetrical is the 45-degree cut on one end. Whatever you come up with is going to have to index that somehow. If it were me, I would make a plywood box jig with sides to locate the pipe, with one end cut at 45-degrees and boxed in. Shove the pipe into the 45 wedge section and it is forced into alignment for drilling. ____________________________________________________________________ Gardner Buchanan gbuchana(a)teksavvy(dot)com FreeBSD: Where you want to go. Today.

Your locating pin needs to run along the other axis. Take a piece of bar stock, drill and ream a hole through it and mount it on the table. Put a pin in the hole and align it with the Y axis of your machine. Use a spacer to raise it up if required. You can rotate your angled end to align with the pin. I'd use a 1/2" pin in a 1.25" rectangular piece of stock. That way the rectangle will clear the pipe wall.

I'll send you a solid model if this isn't clear enough.

The last thing you need is a fancy gizmo. Well, actually the last thing you need is advice from anyone wanting to sell their junk when you can make your own. LOL

I would try to use an angle plate for the stop to drill the first hole, then set up a vertical peg to locate the pipe for the second one.

Perhaps you could clamp a bar across the top of the vise and jam the angled end of the pipe under it.

jsw

How about just a rectangular piece of scrap? Or a few-inch long piece of square tube the right size?

Good Luck! Rich

"John R. Carroll" wrote in news:TtWdnYuUHuysELLTnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

I think I understand what you are describing. It's basically making an alignment pin setup similar to what I can create with my existing 5-axis work stop.

Yes, except in this case, I already own the fancy gizmo.

I like the suggestions about aligning to a 45 degree plate/surface, rather than just the pin. Doug White

Gunner Asch wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I must not have described it clearly enough. The holes are perpendicular to the pipe, so I don't need to rotate the axis of the pipe in any odd direction. I just need to ensure that when I clamp the pipe in the V-jaw that the 45 degree cut is facing up, and not tilted slightly one way or the other.

Doug White

The benefit if using a horizontal pin located at the aproximate center of your part is that the angle doesn't matter. At any rate, I've kicked in my two cents which is worth exactly what was offered. LOL

BTDT

Good Luck Doug.

Drill all the holes first, use them to index your 45 degree cuts.

...next time...

xpzzzz wrote in news:j0qd6q$f05$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

Yup. I figured that one out just about when I cut the last one...

As it turns out, I had a piece of pipe JUST long enough so that I could get all the sections I need, but ONLY if I made the 45 degree cuts to separate them. If I cut them square to separate & drill before beveling the ends, I would have had to go buy more pipe. I probably could have done them in pairs cut with the ends square, drilled them, and then separated them at 45 degrees.

Live & learn...

Doug White