Originally I made the tuning slide on a wooden jig in the drill press, not unlike the setup shown in the photo. The slide requires the bore of the piece of pipe to be cut to a slide fit about two thirds of the way in the pipe. This bore must be very straight with the pipe, cleanly cut, and most importantly, easy to do, because every Low D has to have one. The original jig I used was clever, but slow to load and cranky to get set up and cutting accurately.

When I discovered a magnetic V block in the Grizzly catalog, I got the idea it would be great to set up for doing drilling jobs like the tuning slide. The V block has a switch that turns the magnet on and off and you can set the block on the drill press table or on a slide vise like I show in the photo. The block will not move once the switch is turned on, so you can also use it for a stop or for measuring lengths of cut pieces on your table saw. It is a very handy gadget and Grizzly sells them for about $8. in the catalog. I probably sound like I work for Grizzly, but after looking for stuff everywhere, they usually have it in stock for a good price.

I set the V block on center in the slide vise and align the piece to be drilled with the laser so the drill is true to the bore. The slide vise pushes the pipe into the V block and self centers it into the V. This is a fast and accurate way to drill or ream pipe and it sets up fast!