Drilling apparatus and method

A method of determining proper positioning for one or more holes in a beam, comprising:

• providing a drilling apparatus comprising one or more clamping mechanisms and one or more drilling members capable of operable communication with a controller;
• clamping the beam within the one or more clamping mechanisms;
• determining reference material dimensions of the beam using the one or more clamping mechanisms and the controller;
• using the drilling members to make one or more position readings of the drilling members upon their contact with the beam without needing to know length of the drilling members;
• communicating the one or more position readings and the reference material dimensions to the controller;
• and
• calculating actual material dimensions and material skew using the one or more position readings and the reference material dimensions.

A drilling apparatus for drilling one or more holes in a web of an I-beam, comprising:

• one or more clamping mechanisms capable of clamping the I-beam therein to determine reference beam dimensions;
• a first drilling member for contacting a first flange of the I-beam in at least two locations;
• a second drilling member contacting a second flange of the I-beam in at least two locations;
• one or more servo motors and one or more encoders, resolvers, or hall effect devices operatively connected to each drilling member for providing position readings at the locations where the drilling members contact the first and second flanges to determine beam skew;
• and
• one or more counting mechanisms operatively connected to the one or more encoders, resolvers, or hall effect devices for relaying position readings to a controller, the controller capable of receiving position readings data and calculating true beam dimensions and a distance from a center of each flange from a side clamp surface.