In this 2 part video, I make a tool for holding small parts on the drill press.

If a small part is too small to be held safely by hand,

there's often no easy way to hold it in a vise either.

That's where this Finger Plate Tool can help. It clamps the workpiece firmly to the tool

base, and then the whole thing can either be hand held, or clamped on parallels in a vise.

And a nice additional feature of the tool

is the simple jig included in the design, for drilling cross holes.

Now the dimensions are not very critical, and can be modified to suit whatever stock you have at hand.

For example I made my dimensions to suit this rod stock and this piece of scrap steel.

The construction process has been described many times over the years,

and there are plans in several books. I've put a list of all of

the ones that I know of, in the description below.

So lets get started.

I roughly trimmed the raw stock for the base, and then squared it up on the mill.

Once that was to size, I did some marking out.

For the most part, the layout on the base doesn't need to be overly accurate.

The one exception is the hole and V groove for the cross hole jig.

The hole and groove have to be dead on with each other for the jig to give accurate results.

The holes were opened up with a twist drill, and the counterbore for the bushing holder was put in with an end mill.

The center stud location was then tapped.

And then the V groove for the cross hole jig was milled.

I would have liked to have used a double angle cutter to do this, but I don't have one.

So I tilted the work to 45 degrees, and then used a standard end mill.

It was a bit fiddly to get this right. The cutter needed to be fed down and across

the same amount with each cut to put the groove in the correct position.

I won't know how successful I was with this, until the very end when I do some test drilling.

The V shape was then roughed out on the band saw.

And then the cut was tidied up on the belt sander.

The steel has a layer of black scale on both sides that has to be removed, and I think

it would be nice to leave the tool with a brushed finish, so time for a bit of elbow grease.

A quick break of the sharp corners, and the

main part of the base is complete.

Next up is this bushing holder, which holds the little bushings to guide the drill for cross holes.

The first step is to turn the basic shape on the lathe.

The center of the part is then drilled out to the correct size, to accept the cross hole bushings.

And then while its still attached to the parent stock,

its taken over to the mill to put in that cross hole.

I wanted this hole to have a good surface finish, so although I started the hole with

a twist drill, I did the final sizing with an end mill.

Back on the lathe, a light touch with a file knocks off the burr from the cross hole,

and its ready to be parted off.

The parted surface needs a light facing cut and chamfer to clean it up.

And I used a hand chamfering tool to knock the edges off the inside hole.

A drop of loctite holds it in place.

There are 2 threaded components on the tool, the center stud, as well as the lifting screw,

so I need 2 lengths of the threaded rod cut off, and then prepared for those parts.

That center stud can now be permanently put in place, to finish off the base.

Next up is this clamping nut, that screws down on the center stud.

I want this to have a nice knurled finish, so I made a light pass to make sure the pattern

was going down well, and then the knurl was taken to full depth.

Once the knurl was complete, the excess was trimmed away, and the tapered profile of the part was formed.

The center was drilled and threaded to match the stud.

Finally the nut was parted off, and then the rough surfaces cleaned up.

Thats about half of the work for the tool completed.

In the next video, I'll finish off the tool by making the lifting screw,

the drilling jig bushings and the clamping finger.

Thanks for watching, I'll see you later.

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