Centre-hole guide for belts or straps

[fredk]

There was a recent discussion on how to centre and align oval hole punches on belts

I noticed that nobody mentioned this very simple jig thing. They are easy to make up out of scrap material. I made these three last night/evening as my originals have gone awol.

Basically, a piece of clear or semi-clear perspex or acrylic sheet. Even a bit of board will do. Three holes drilled through it. The two at the ends take some sort of bar. The most important part is making sure the hole drilled between the two outer ones is dead centred between them.

I used a bit of frosted perspex or acrylic. The pins in the outer holes is 1/8 aluminium tube, long enough to go thru the perspex (5mm) plus 5mm for going over the strap. The hole in the centre is a tight sliding fit for one of my scratch awls. I made three sizes as the larger one is bit OTT on small thin belts/straps, and one is devoted to my game boards

An alternative to using a scratch awl to just mark the leather is to make that centre hole big enough for your favourite hole punch. Push it thru and mark the leather then come back and punch on the hole outline.

In use, you simply slip over your belt/strap and swivel it until the pins touch the edge, then push a scratch awl or similar through the centre hole and you make a mark exactly in the centre of the strap width

If you want to you can put a mark on the perspex so you can slide it along, align the mark with your previous hole and you then have the place for the new hole

Look at the image below. The tab of tape is 2 cm from the awl hole. After making a mark with the awl if I slide the jig over until that bit of tape is over the mark then the jig is set for me to make another punching mark 2 cm from the first

 

[dikman]

Elegant and, like all good things, simple. Once I'm mobile again I'll have to make a couple.

[chuck123wapati]

very cool tool! if you could find a way to add circles or a circle like a target scribed into the plastic at what ever intervals you want for hole spacing you could do away with the tape. I love the K.i.s.s. method of making functional tools. Thank you for posting this.

[paloma]

They can even do 2 in 1 by inverting the two pairs of pins on the same plate. Wide and narrower.

another simple idea:

https://www.instructables.com/id/center-finder/

Edited September 20, 2020 by paloma

[fredk]

6 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

. . .  if you could find a way to add circles or a circle like a target scribed into the plastic at what ever intervals you want for hole spacing you could do away with the tape. . . .

yup, but I'm not clever enough to have worked that bit out yet

6 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

. I love the K.i.s.s. method of making functional tools.. . . 

yup, k.i.s.s is best, especially for me

[Retswerb]

This is great. Love the additional ideas of double pins and the target, super simple and effective.

[McCarthy]

If you take one of these center finders and drill out the hole in the bottom it holds the small C.S. Osborne punches perfectly. I mark the leather with a divider, sight down the hole and center my mark on the x axis of the sight picture. Then I stick the punch down to make a mark. I only make marks with the tool, I take the punch out to drive it through. This is the only way I can make neat holes, because I can't manually center the punch on a dot to save my life.

 

[chuck123wapati]

49 minutes ago, fredk said:

yup, but I'm not clever enough to have worked that bit out yet

yup, k.i.s.s is best, especially for me

 

40 minutes ago, Retswerb said:

This is great. Love the additional ideas of double pins and the target, super simple and effective.

i was thinking a stud the size of your middle hole through a piece of scrap wood or plastic then screw a sharp screw through it to act as a scribe at the desired length, turn it over stick it in the hole of your jig and turn it to scribe the line  for your perfectly centered target. 

Edited September 20, 2020 by chuck123wapati

[fredk]

1 minute ago, chuck123wapati said:

 

i was thinking a stud the size of your middle hole through a piece of scrap wood or plastic then screw a sharp screw through it to act as a scribe at the desired length, turn it over stick it in the hole and turn it to scribe the line  for your perfectly centered target. 

I was thinking - I used a small sized drawing compass to mark the distance of the centre hole from the outer ones, then I drilled a 0.8mm pilot hole. I could put one compass point in that small hole and scribe a line, or lines, with the the other compass point ? Would that work? 

Actually, that compass point may fit tight in that centre hole now. I'll maybe try it out later

[chuck123wapati]

1 minute ago, fredk said:

I was thinking - I used a small sized drawing compass to mark the distance of the centre hole from the outer ones, then I drilled a 0.8mm pilot hole. I could put one compass point in that small hole and scribe a line, or lines, with the the other compass point ? Would that work? 

Actually, that compass point may fit tight in that centre hole now. I'll maybe try it out later

yes if it fits the center hole would be very easy to do i don't think it will have to be a very large or deep scribe line to be easily seen. 

[fredk]

Now with improvements

I used the divider point to scribe a line at about 12mm ( 1/2 inch) and 20mm ( 3/4 inch) from the centre. I went over the lines a few times to make it deep enough to take some black paint. I painted the whole line then wet sanded the excess off.

Its on a 40mm wide strap in the picture. It doesn't look even because of its angle in the photo but in the hand the 20mm circle touches both sides of the strap. The black lines are neat too but show kinda broken up due it being a digital photo

Thanks, @chuck123wapati, I was over thinking the problem.  A simple scribed line does the job well.  K.I.S.S. it is

 

[chuck123wapati]

42 minutes ago, fredk said:

Now with improvements

I used the divider point to scribe a line at about 12mm ( 1/2 inch) and 20mm ( 3/4 inch) from the centre. I went over the lines a few times to make it deep enough to take some black paint. I painted the whole line then wet sanded the excess off.

Its on a 40mm wide strap in the picture. It doesn't look even because of its angle in the photo but in the hand the 20mm circle touches both sides of the strap. The black lines are neat too but show kinda broken up due it being a digital photo

Thanks, @chuck123wapati, I was over thinking the problem.  A simple scribed line does the job well.  K.I.S.S. it is

 

perfection 

[dikman]

Yep, even better!

[chuck123wapati]

16 hours ago, fredk said:

Now with improvements

I used the divider point to scribe a line at about 12mm ( 1/2 inch) and 20mm ( 3/4 inch) from the centre. I went over the lines a few times to make it deep enough to take some black paint. I painted the whole line then wet sanded the excess off.

Its on a 40mm wide strap in the picture. It doesn't look even because of its angle in the photo but in the hand the 20mm circle touches both sides of the strap. The black lines are neat too but show kinda broken up due it being a digital photo

Thanks, @chuck123wapati, I was over thinking the problem.  A simple scribed line does the job well.  K.I.S.S. it is

 

 

15 hours ago, dikman said:

Yep, even better!

amazing what a guy can do without a computer, a special cad drawing app, a 3d printer........ 

[dikman]

Another possible mod to it. Use it to mark the first hole, slide it along so the circle is over the mark and mark that point on the circle with the awl. Drill a small hole and put another small pin in it, then once you've marked your first hole on the belt slide it along so the pin sits in the mark and you've got perfect spacing for the next hole.

Just a thought.

[paloma]

another good idea;