On 15/10/2014 11:31, gareth wrote:
In the past, hoping to get the boring mechanical bit over and done
with, I drilled my aluminium freehand, with the result that a lot
of filing then had to be done to align the screw holes of different bits.

But, now I have a drill press and an engineer's vice to hold everything
down, it's a different world!

I found that the best way to align holes was to print out a full sized
drawing of the hole layouts, glue it on and then centre punch the holes.
As long as you have accurate reference points on all parts then the
holes line up.
I gave up drawing and marking the individual parts as being too
error-prone and labour intensive.

But drill presses are good kit.

Andy