Mike, the link opens a page of several products
Doh! Lets try that again.
http://www.mcmaster.com/#97042a216/=12fdisp
Itās a one end threaded stud. These donāt look like they are tolerance controlled at all though.
The only retractable dowel pin I can find is tapered, and the thread is used to extract it from the hole : http://www.mcmaster.com/#92284a280/=12fdjpg
This guy: http://www.mcmaster.com/#97175a329/=12fdk5n might be usable with a stud screwed into it.
I recommend using a standard dowel pin. Itās easy to make the holes and itās more accurate than anything else.
Unfortunately, that doesnāt really help in a HTS bed of holes. The problem this would solve is getting back an inch or so at the edge of the bed by being able to use the outermost row of holes as an alignment point instead of a flat bar.
Whatās your ultimate goal? You can put 1/8" dowel holes anywhere in the plate to use as reference points.
Iāve already got holes every 1/2" in this plateā¦would be nice to use them.
Just use a screw then and accept the loss in positional accuracy. There arenāt really any other choices. You might be able to mill the od of the screws to try to make them a little more accurate but screw threads arenāt meant to be used for positioning. Try measuring and see if they are close enough.