On 2009-10-03, Michael Koblic wrote:

[ ... ]

I had to make another of these parts in a hurry. No time to make a jig. I
looked at all my drill presse vises and *none of them* had a horizontal
V-grove matching the vertical one. In fact my favorite vise had *three*
vertical grooves, all different, none-matching the horizontal groove.

Ouch!

I
tried wrapping some tape around the improvised guide but the result was way
off center.

So back to end clamping. On this occasion however I made sure that the steel
was "certified mild" and the drill was a stub drill. It worked like a charm!

I shall still look into a jig in the future when the current crop of
problems is sorted.

BTW, is 12L14 much different from 1018?

Yes, very different to machine. (But it is not good to weld,
because of the lead in the alloy, which makes it so nice to machine.)
Both are probably about equally hard, but when you are cutting metal the
difference is amazing -- and it will show up in the finish you get, too.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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