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Rick Cook
 
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JMartin957 wrote:

For evenly spaced holes, get a good set of
dividers
and set the distance accurately. (I like to let the points "rest" in the
graduations of
the scale) Then step off the distance and use one leg of the divider to
scribe
across the first line, again pressing hard enough to make a good score which
you
can later feel. A little practice and it goes pretty quick.


While stepping off locations in that way is sometimes the easiest method, it's
not always the most accurate.

If your goal is to have the holes 1" apart, it's fine. But if your goal is to
have one hole at 1.5", the next at 2.5", etc., it's not so hot. If the
dividers are set slightly off, you'll get errors accummulating all in the same
direction. You'd be better off marking from a rule.

John Martin


One fast way to check for gross errors with the step off method is to step off
around the circle in the opposite direction and see how close you come to the
original marks.

Close enough for sheet metal.

--RC