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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Perth
    Posts
    363

    Default OK, not a welding question but ...

    ... vaguely related. And since you guys know your stuff I know someone will be able to help me.

    I want to make a little bracket in the engine bay on my car, and on the back of the bracket I want to have some holes so I can bolt it to some captive bolts inside the guard. How can I locate the holes? If I hold the piece up against the metal, it obviously covers the holes in the guard so I can't see them. I could use measurements but that's prone to error and it's a slightly tricky area to get verniers in to. I could use some paper and make a template. Is that the usual way people do this?

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Muswellbrook NSW
    Posts
    375

    Default

    You are on the right track with building a template but, do not use paper! Manilla folder or cereal packet cardboard is the go and if you hold it in place and give it a rub with the pein end of a hammer or something rounded it will give a nice clean impression. Build your whole bracket out of the cardboard first, trial for fit then make it from metal.

    I'm a boilermaker and still make heaps of things from cardboard with bits cut off and bits masking taped on to achieve the correct shape, before building it in metal.

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    Brisbane
    Posts
    5,773

    Default

    With the digital verniers, remember the zero function.

    You may be able to get in there but not read the display......so get the verniers in there and get the points lined up..then hit the zero button.

    you can then doo what you like with the verniers to get them out.

    close the jaws and you will have a negative reading of the dimension.

    Another trick.

    If you cant see straight onto the holes or the holes are ill defined on the surface.

    thread a pair of long threaded bolts or screws into the captive nuts and then measure off those.

    remember it is often more accurate to measure to the sides of the holes rather than the centre...the centre you have to approximate....if you measure from the left side of one hole t the left side of the other, you will often pick up accuracy.

    yet another trick

    if the holes are a but ill defined on the surface but you can sight up a reliable part of the hole, either an edge or a centre.....get out yor pencil and ruler and project the dimensions on the surface of the job and measure the pencil projections.

    yet another trick

    If you can get to the other side, of course you can poke thru with a scriber....

    But if ya cant get to both sides at the same time.....grind a reasonably accurate point on a couple of long threded bolts..screw them into the captive nuts from the other side till the points just poke thru.

    take the job or a sacrificial flat thing...press down on one point to mark it and scribe the second by moving the job in your hand.

    yet another trick

    sort of back to projecting lines.......take a conicaly sharpened pencil or a scriber......poke it in the hole so the cone centres it...then draw it out of the hole carefully keeping the point in contact with the side and this will give you the mark.....with skill and steady hand this can be quite accurate.

    of course you can use dividers.

    cheers
    Any thing with sharp teeth eats meat.
    Most powertools have sharp teeth.
    People are made of meat.
    Abrasives can be just as dangerous as a blade.....and 10 times more painfull.

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Roxby Downs Sth Aust
    Age
    47
    Posts
    254

    Default

    this may sound a little dodgey but i on occasion when face with the same problem smear oil onto the plate that needs duplicating and press the other peice against it, with any luck you will get the mirror image or part of it.

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