Best method for drilling 5 evenly spaced holes. In a circle.

[airrj1]

Thanks Guys.

I am most familiar with the rotary table method since I did this allot at the shop that I worked at. However we didn't have a DRO there. The one detail that I left out is that I have several operations on each hole, so I don't think the jig/pining method would work the best.

I will try the DRO. Thanks for the layout Wicked. I work on CAD all day at work, but it is very helpful to have data from someone else to double check your work.

Hopefully I can post some finished photos soon.



And Matt, any photos would be great. [email protected]

[Matt@RFR]

Mark, you're absolutely right about making a fixture for doing several pieces on a machine with out a DRO. However, for four pieces, I'd be done with mine before I could be half way through the fixture.

And not that this helps RJ any, but that's the cool thing about the Newall C80 DRO...after it figures your bolt hole locations for you, all you do is start at #1 hole, do your operation, press the "next" arrow, and move to zero,zero again, etc etc. It's super fast, and impossible to screw up once you have it set.

RJ, email on it's way.

[1976SR71]

First choice...3 jaw chuck in my VMC ..
Write a program... set up/touch off tools and run
If you are most familiar with a rotary table..I believe that would be fastest on a manual.
Just use light spots to check that the pattern is right, and then use a paint or permanent marker to mark your divisions...less likley to make a mistake when indexing:icon996:

[Matt@RFR]

Jeff, out of curiosity, why chuck this instead of machining soft jaws?

What do you use to hold your chuck on the table?

[1976SR71]

Hey Matt,
We have 3 Jaw chucks that will clamp down flat on the table...Alot faster to clamp down a chuck..Chuck up the part..and indicate your center.
I just made a set of spacers just a couple of months ago...Thats how I did them.
We don't have premade soft jaw blanks where I work..But that is an option

Also...If the spacers are not hub centric..Most lug nuts use a 60deg seating angle...and you need a large enough dia. hole to fit your socket in.
Instead of pressing in studs I used socket head allen bolts..grade 8 with .5" of thread in the spacer with lock washers and locktite.
I made these out of steel because it was free and they were going on a truck..P.S. the pics were taken after they were used ...

[Matt@RFR]

Jeff, that sounds like a good project for me. Plain back chuck, make a mount for it and bolt the mount to the table or rotory table. That'd get the hold downs out of the picture.

Do you have a picture of the chuck setup?

[1976SR71]

Sorry Matt,
I don't have any pictures of the set up.
I have been after them for years to get a digital camera.
So we can take pictures of complicated set ups and save them in a folder with the program on the computer....
But I feel like this