Keeping Bolt Holes Aligned when Drilling and Tapping

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This tutorial describes steps for joining two metal plates with multiple screws and keeping the holes aligned for all of the screws. With a milling machine, this would be easy, because you can position the table with precision for both plates. Doing it on the drill press by just doing manual layout and drilling depends on more precise hand word than is reasonable to expect. So we will use some tricks that make the holes line up even if they are not a precisely positioned as they would be on the mill.

The example we use here is just two aluminum plates attached together with four cap screws. By drilling through both plates at the same time and assembling with screws as we go, the screws themselves keep things aligned. Of course, there are variations on this, which will be described below.

File:Example.jpg