# Finding the center of Hex



## RVJimD (Jan 29, 2015)

Is there an easy way to accurately find the center of this hex rod?  I'm making a hammer.  I eyeballed the first one I made and now I have a surface plate and so I marked the left/right center.  How do I find the top/bottom center?  It doesn't fit into a v block...

jim


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## RVJimD (Jan 29, 2015)

I ended up putting it in the V Block with one side flat.  That seemed to work okay, is there a better method for this?

thanks

jim


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## seasicksteve (Jan 29, 2015)

RVJimD said:


> Is there an easy way to accurately find the center of this hex rod?  I'm making a hammer.  I eyeballed the first one I made and now I have a surface plate and so I marked the left/right center.  How do I find the top/bottom center?  It doesn't fit into a v block...
> 
> jim



You could clamp it to a right angle plate or use a small square


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## Ulma Doctor (Jan 29, 2015)

at the risk of sounding simplistic,
i would measure the width with my dial calipers.
 divide by width by 2 and reset the caliper to the 1/2 dimension and scribe the mark with my dial caliper jaws.
one jaw on one side of the work the other jaw would scribe the layout line on the blued/redded up part.
or
you could lay the part flat horizontally and use the scriber on the height gauge to get the right height and scribe it that way.


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## kd4gij (Jan 29, 2015)

Dial calipers is how i would do it. ^


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## JetDoc (Jan 29, 2015)

I'd just mark like you did center to center left-right and then roll to the next flat on the hex. After the third line the intersection of the three should have you on center.


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## Bill C. (Jan 29, 2015)

RVJimD said:


> Is there an easy way to accurately find the center of this hex rod?  I'm making a hammer.  I eyeballed the first one I made and now I have a surface plate and so I marked the left/right center.  How do I find the top/bottom center?  It doesn't fit into a v block...
> 
> jim



Your part looks big enough to stand on its own.  Can always stand it up against the outside face of the V block.  I see you have a height gauge.  I would use a scale to get a rough center location.  Use that number and set the gauge to it.  Scratch/mark the height on one side of the blued area then turn the part over and mark that end.  If there is a difference adjust the to bring both ends on center. 

 I like your project , be sure to post a photo of the finished hammer.


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## RVJimD (Jan 29, 2015)

Thanks for the tips.  I considered the caliper method, but it looks to me like there is just enough radius on the corners of the hex that it would not guide the caliper very well.  The right angle idea makes sense.  

I almost got got the hammer finished, but decided to call it a day.  It will end up as a traveling bingo gift at the family get together this weekend.

here is a picture of it almost finished.  I need to read up on tapers, I don't have an attachment so I just set the compound and do it that way since they are short enough to get the job done.  The taper on one side of the head doesn't match the first side.  I probably measured it wrong.  I think I can even them out by bringing them both a bit closer to the center.  Do that, and turn the aluminum cap to match the steel head on the same side.


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## rgray (Jan 30, 2015)

The face is a rectangle. Great thing about rectangles and squares is if you  draw a line from corner to corner they intersect at the center. Put punch mark there.

No fancy tool required. Just sharp scribe, machinist pocket ruler, and a good eye.


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## rgray (Jan 30, 2015)

To get closer. mount in mill and use edge finder at widest point. Divide by 2 and you have center.
That's how I would do it since I would need to drill it anyway. I would use the edge finder for both directions, no surface plate required.


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## RVJimD (Jan 30, 2015)

Got the hammer finished up.  The longer one is my second one that I was working on last night.  The shorter one I did a few weeks back.  It is shorter because I screwed up the threading operation on the handle and had to face off the thread and do it a second time.  I had misread the tap that I used on the hole in the head and made threads on the handle to fit the wrong sized hole.:nuts:

Thanks for putting up with my questions, it helps me improve and learn as I go.

the handle and one tip are 6061 aluminum.  The second tip is brass and the head is hex 1018 steel.  The size of head and tips are based on the size of brass and hex that I had on hand.  The only brass I have is 3/4"

jim


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## kd4gij (Jan 30, 2015)

Verry nice work.:thumbsup2:


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## larryr (Feb 3, 2015)

just clamp it to the side of your vblock or angle plate and use the fancy height gage to find center.


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