How much are the screws misaligned?
-If the screws are not very far out of alignment, sometimes you can enlarge the hole in the scale a little. Sometimes I use a larger drill bit to enlarge the hole. The other thing I do is to use a small round file and elongate the hole so it fits or aligns.
When you drilled the holes in the scales, how much clearance is there?
-Usually the hole that the screw passes through (non-threaded section) is slight larger than the nominal screw diameter. The wiggle room can help with the alignment. In the Machinery's Handbook, they have guidelines and ranges for the holes. For example: 2-56 screw, that has a nominal diameter of 0.089”, would use a 0.106” ( no. 36 drill)dia hole. If you don't have a Machinery's Handbook, just drill a hole in a scrap and how the screw fits.
I like to make a template for drilling holes. Once the hole positions are marked, using the liner as a guide, center punch the center of the holes where you are going to drill. Marking it with a center punch will keep your drill bit from wandering when you start drilling the hole. Drill the holes and make sure they line up with the holes in the liner.
Get a couple of extra drill bits or pins of the same diameter as the holes you are going to drill. Use some double stick tape to attach the template to the scale material. Clamp to bench or drill press table when drilling.
Drill your first hole. After drilling, place a pin of drill bit of the same size in the hole (if I use a drill bit, I usually turn it around and use the non cutting end). Move to the next hole and drill it. Put another pin in it. This will help to keep the template from moving around and keep the holes properly aligned.
Hope this helps. I usually like to use phenolic (a.k.a. Micarta) or wood
Thank you for the kind words incaorchid. I was in the process of typing some notes up this morning, but had to head off to work.
Ric
