In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
John wrote:

On Jan 24, 10:33 am, Ian Chard wrote:
Hi,

I'm about to put up a curtain pole, but the size I wanted wasn't
available, and the one I have is quite a bit too long. It has
pre-drilled holes down either end into which the finials screw.

The instructions say to cut it square and re-drill the hole. How do I
go about drilling into the pole making sure the hole is parallel? I
don't have a lathe

Thanks
- Ian

This is quite easy if you've a friend to help.
Clamp the pole horizontal ant postion your drill so that you're
looking down onto it. You can now get it in line in the horizontal
plane.
Now get someone else to sight it up from the side. They can position
the drill in the vertical plane.
Then drill the hole.


If you use a drill with a built-in spirit level, you can do it
single-handed.

First mark the centre position in the cut end [1]. Then clamp the pole
horizontally in a workmate. As stated above, you can see that the drill is
in line in the horizontal plane by looking down from above. And if you hold
the drill so that its built-in spirit level reads level, you'll be in line
in the vertical plane too.

[1] There are various geometric ways of doing this, but the simplest is
probably to use a pair of compasses to draw a circle the same diameter as
the pole. Then cut it out, place it on the end of the pole and stick a
pencil point through the centre hole.
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored.. Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks.
PLEASE REPLY TO NEWSGROUP!