Patent ID: 7043835

Claim:
A method for centering a workpiece on the central axis of a cylindrical bore in a body, the workpiece including a rod, the method comprising: (a) inserting into an end of the bore an arbor having a cylindrical exterior surface matingly slidable within the cylindrical bore, the arbor having a symmetrical reference pin protruding from an end of the arbor coaxially with the central axis; (b) sensing the position of the reference pin in a plane transverse to the central axis and transmitting pin position data to a computer system; (c) computing a center of the reference pin from the pin position data and representing the reference pin center as a bore axis target; (d) removing the arbor from the bore and inserting the workpiece into the bore with the rod protruding from the end of the bore; (e) sensing the position of the rod in the plane traverse to the central axis and transmitting rod position data to the computer system; (f) computing a center of the rod from the rod position data and representing the rod center as a rod target; and (g) adjusting the position of the rod to bring the rod target substantially coincident with the bore axis target.