Datum Surfaces on Stocks

G'day there, but of a basic question, but after doing one repair on a stock which required drilling through the stock I found it hard to find something use to ensure the drill went straight through the stock. Essentially with the drill press and the curved sides of the stock it was all guess work. I know I could use some of the surfaces inside the stock to gauge if it were perfectly upright partially but not entirely, and even then the surfaces in there are tiny and hard to use, and even the it was impossible to keep the stock in one place. In the end I went by eye and it worked, but I don't want that.

Being an inexperienced person with no real workshop time means this is probably a dumb question for the veterans on here, but any help is appreciated.

Make a dimple (center punch mark) where you want the drill to come out and where you want it to go in. Make a taper / pin and mount it to your drill press table. Move it around until you get the tip of the drill bit perfectly centered on the taper when you run the drill press quill down. Lock the taper in place - I made one from all-thread rod, and use a nut with washer above and below the center hole in the drill press table. Set stock with punch mark on the taper - start drilling on the second punch mark. Go about 1/2 way. Flip stock over and place your drilled hole on the taper. Drill into the second punch mark. The holes will meet. You will have entrance and exit holes exactly where you made the punch marks.

Potash that is genius. Thank you so much for sharing that. I'd never have come up with that on my own but its so simple now I think about it. Honestly thanks a bunch.

Awesome advice!

The method Potashminer described works very well. Here is a little shop-made jig that allows it to be accurately done without a drill press. This example is a converted blacksmith made c-clamp, but just about any appropriately sized c-clamp will do. Each guide bushing is sized for a specific size of drill bit and the graduated spacer rings are so the guide can be tightened down for rigidity. Note the set screw in the frame where the tail piece passes through. It's there to take out any slop and a lock nut would do just as well. With a little planning, the whole thing can built on a drill press, although some precision is required. I use it for pin and bolt placement when building longrifles.

Drats! Can't get pic to upload. Will try again later.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...0/kdn2ar-1.jpg

Cool tool !

That is ingenious, hats off.....

The advantage of the Cool Tool presented by Bluenoser is its suitability for use on awkwardly shaped surfaces, such as gunstocks.
The time taken to use a hand-drill would be considerably shorter than the extraordinarily long time I have found it takes to fix something like a broken wrist section in a drill press. In fact, I don't even use a drill press, rather the lathe - as a kind of horizontal borer with the wood fixed to a rotatable vertical slide. And that takes long enough.

I think I might make a Cool Tool, one wet weekend.