Drill Press anyone?

[randysmith]

Does anyone have a drill press they'd be willing to let me use to make a hole in a metal object? (Or, if you feel protective of your tools, willing to make such a hole for me?) I think I need more precision on this hole than I can get from a hand-held drill, and while my immediate instinct is to go out and buy a drill press, recent events are suggesting that care with spending may be in order :-}.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can offer (I'm not sure what to offer in return, but if you need something that I'm in a position to provide, don't hesitate to ask).

(Background, for the curious: I'm sorta semi becoming the go-to person for problems with the locks at psongster's church (at least, she's going to me :-}). The bar that goes through a mortise lock broke. The nice folks at Commonwealth lock in Porter found a replacement for me, but it needs to be cut shorter and have the pin hole re-drilled at a different location. I think I can substitute a dremel for a bandsaw for cutting it shorter, but the hole has to be right across the middle of the bar or the holding pin won't go through.)

Comments

[frobzwiththingz.livejournal.com]

If you can get out to Westford, you can use my basement machine shop. [How much precision do you actually need? locating and spotting to .001" is easily doable with the equipment in there. you don't need more than that, do you?]

If you can get out there tommorow, you can be a helpful body for the aerial rig raising (http://frobzwiththingz.livejournal.com/34972.html) at the same time.

[randysmith]

Thanks! But it sounds like I'm going to be ok locally.

In terms of precision, this was me, in the locksmith thinking "Oh, I can do that with my drill" and me, a couple of hours later thinking "No, I need more precision than my hands are going to manage". 0.001" is way better than I need; to give you the idea, I rather not have the pin (a bit less than 1/5"in diameter) rattling around in the hole, but I don't think it ruins the repair if it is. OTOH, this is my first time doing this type of repair, so I want to be conservative.