In article .com,
wrote:
I have a drill press, and I need to center a hole in the face of a
cylinder. I would be perfectly happy to one hundredth of an inch
accuracy. An X-Y table attached to the drill press stage would do the
job, but I suspect that for the level of accuracy that I need, there is
a simpler solution--and I just don't know it.

I've tried scribing diameters across the face, and picking where they
intersect--but the results have been less than impressive. Does
someone have a trick for this?

What did you use for positioning the diameters? A V centering
head on a combination square should do a pretty good job, as long as
your scribe has a very skinny point, and you angle it so the point is
right along the edge of the scale.

Then, you need a spotting drill and good magnification to get
the hole started as close to the intersection of the lines as possible.
Once that is done, you can move up to a larger bit. But 0.010" may be
pushing it if you don't have experience in doing this.

Better, of course, would be a lathe of sufficient size with a
4-jaw chuck, and a good indicator, and a center drill in the tailstock
chuck once you get the end running true.

Good Luck,
DoN.
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