Box Tube Drill Guide

Lining up holes is hard. There are many ways to layout where holes are supposed to go on a part. Some of these are covered in the Drilling Guide in the Everybot Evergreens. The Box Tube Drill Guide can be an incredibly useful tool to improve the layout of the holes on the 2x1, and 1x1, box tubes required to build the Everybot.

To use the Box Tube Drill Guide, you can measure and layout your holes to the best of your ability, and mark the location with a permanent marker. In the image below, a hole is needed in the center of a 2x1, 1.5” from the end of the tube. We first used a green marker to make the initial lines and marks. Then we made a more visible spot with a black marker. This mark is close to the right spot, but it is not perfect.

Because the mark is 1.5” from the end of the tube, we can use the Drill Guide with a bottom face and butt the tube all the way against the back edge. When we do this, the mark is visible within the 3rd hole in the middle row.

Now, we can take the whole assembly over to the drill press and drill straight through this hole.

You can also clamp the drill guide in place to ensure it doesn’t move during the drilling operation.