Boom  Drilling Jig

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One of the most enjoyable facets of Amateur radio is building antennas.  Most of us, at one time or another, gets involved in this activity.  Sooner or later there arises the need to drill holes in a piece of boom material that will allow passing elements through the boom.  Several years ago my Wife & I started traveling the hamfest circuit, mostly in the south.  I started building and selling 2 meter antennas, and in the process of building these antennas found the need to drill booms so that the elements could be mounted.  I devised a jig that would allow the booms to be drilled uniformly so that the elements would all be at right angles to the boom and all in the same plane. I am happy to present pictures of that drilling jig here. I hope it will help you with your antenna building efforts.

The first two pictures show the two pieces of the jig assembled.  The narrow piece in picture #4 is a piece of 1X2, 6 feet long.  In the second picture, there is a piece of 2X2 mounted on the back of a piece of 1X6. That same 2X2 can be seen in the picture with the handle where numerous holes resulting from the drilling operation can be seen. In picture 2, the bottom guide can be seen, showing two pieces of 1X2 used for that purpose.  The last 2 pictures are of the fixed position guide.  Pictures 4, 5, 6, and 7 are of the slide.  The piece of material being drilled is held to the slide using C Clamps at each end.  The slide moves easily in the guide if the top of the guide is sprayed with Endust, Pledge, or a similar material.  Of course, when choosing material for this project, be careful to pick material that is as straight as possible.  I nailed the pieces of the jig together, but in retrospect I probably should have used wood screws.  The center of the guide should be placed on the table of the drill press, and the ends should be supported firmly at the same height as the table, making sure that the assembly will not move around during use.  Most of the time I drilled tubing of the same diameter.  If a different diameter is to be drilled, the position of the jig will need to be adjusted to be sure that the holes will be in the center of the boom.

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