Drill guide spaces holes, and keeps them in line
Make perfectly spaced shelf-pin holes with a portable drill and this simple jig.
Because I don't own a drill press, I wasn't looking forward to drilling a bunch of equally spaced holes for shelf pins in the sides of a cabinet. My prospects brightened when I came up with the self-aligning, self-spacing jig for use with a portable drill, shown at right.
I made it from three pieces of oak, glued together as shown at right, and two short 1/4" dowels. I laid out three 1/4" holes on 2" centers (the size and spacing for my shelf pins) along the centerline on the bottom of the jig, with the center of the first hole—the guide hole—1" from the thick end. I used a drill guide (McFeely's part no. DG-3637, $39, 800/443-7937 or www.mcfeelys.com) to drill the three holes perpendicular to the base.
After marking and drilling the first two holes in the series, I indexed the jig's dowels in the cabinet-side holes, and drilled the third hole. I then simply stepped the jig up one hole each time to drill the rest.
—Jim Laine, Hillsborough, N.J.
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