Lightened Frames? How you keep the ports lined up?

My question comes afer reading Littleman's last post, amazing work I might add, How do you line up the two sides of the lighting ports in the frame? It seems to me it is like trying to guess where the other side of the hole will be. I know it looks easy but I kinda get the feeling it's not. Just wondering,
Gabe

Damn thats good lookin'​

 

Measure twice, cut once...

 

Holesaw+drill press

 

I think what he's trying to say is, how do you keep the holes lined up from side of the boxed frame rail to the other. Not between the two frame rails. I'm curious to know the trick as well. Tman beat me to it. I see.

Woody

 

Oh OK now I see..
Thanks Fellas.
Gabe

 

Just chuck it up in the old drill press with some C clamps.

The hard part is trying to find all the different sized beer and chili cans to cut and weld into the holes.

 

Use a Mill or drill press if possible, lay down some dykem, use calipers to drag along the contour of the tubing to find center. Then plot out your spacing, take a hammer and a pointed chisel and hit it on all your centers. Mount your part on the table, I set mine up on 1-2-3 blocks, that way you can go through th top side stop and remove the first cut disc and blow through the bottom side.And if yo want to blow holes on an existing frame or what ever, its so large it will not go on a press, just take your time and lay it all out with the dykem and calipers on both sides, just try to use the same reference point on both sides to plot it all out, I have done it both ways...The hole saws cut alittle larger so you have some room to be off just alittle........Littleman.......and lots of time, it is a slow process..have fun

 

With a hole saw, replace the shorty little drill with a longer one. That way the pilot hole for the second "port" will engage while the hole saw itself is still aligned in the first "port." You may need to experiment with drill length to get the "sweet spot" between the two so that the second pilot hole always starts before the hole saw is completely through the first "port."

 

If I'm reading this question correctly, you want to drill - large - holes in your frame rails. If the frame is in pieces; then some of the tricks above will work.

BUT, if the frame is already assembled, your going to have a "muther" of a time hanging the frame over, in or on a mill or a drill press.

A "trick" - this I learned from C9 - is to take a block of aluminum - or steel - about 1" thick and drill it on your drill press with the same sized hole as the pilot drill in the hole saw diameter your going to use. Make sure the table of the drill press is square in both directions - side to side and back to front - when you drill your "guide block."

After you have layed out the locations of the holes you want in the frame, use a drill slightly smaller than the pilot hole in your guide block and drill each location. (this will be done on one side only)

Taking the guide block and the drill - pilot drill size - line up the nose of the drill bit over each of the smaller holes and clamp the guide block to the frame. The guide block will insure the pilot hole will be square to the rail. Drill all the way through to the OTHER SIDE and THROUGH the other side.

Now you have a pilot hole for your hole saw on each side, and they will be in line with each other.