I used a pipe cuter to cut the aluminum rods to the right length and then installed the inserts into each end. It was a tight fit but with a few taps on the floor I was able to get them installed. I then used the drill press to drill all the holes. I used a short #30 drill bit to keep the deflection to a minimum. I also added some marks to the vice to note the position of the end of the rod so that all the holes were consistent at 5/16 from the edge. I just eye balled the spacing (~90 deg).
