I am making some bushes about 1/2" long by 1/2" dia which need to be cross drilled. They sit nicely in a V block, its just that the clamp is too high and close to the hole so it gets in the way of the drill chuck.

I could make or buy some really small V blocks but I feel its the wrong solution. The solution I am after is a low silhouette finger that runs fore and aft along the V axis with some clamping arrangement. But the only solution I can think off requires many fingers to span the rod size 1/8" to 3/4", if the finger is to have a V in it to centralise the clamp end on the top of the work piece. If no V is machined in the finger then some other stabiliser would be required to stop the finger slipping down the side of the rod as the clamping pressure is put on the finger.

If I ditch the V block and use two plates with Vs milled in each, so there is lots of room for clamps and jacks, then I need an assortment of thickesses to cope with the different depth of groove for different diameter rod.

Unless someone can suggest a better way, I'll just grab them in toolmakers clamps and clamp the clamps down to drill the bushes,

Frank