with the full round older cranks I've use a 6 inch metal ruler to line the 2 halves up at home.

The Jig Holes are Reference Points


. The Ruler Acts as a Parallel Gauge

you are checking for two things simultaneously:

Twist (Clocking): Making sure one half wasn't rotated further forward than the other.

Parallellism: Making sure the two halves weren't "pinched" or "flared" relative to each other.

Just have to be careful when welding parts together to hold them in place, as a little heat can make metal distort easily.

but A quick tack or spot weld doesn't inject enough total thermal energy into a piece of steel that thick to cause warp or distortion. The surrounding massive volume of cold steel acts as a "heat sink," absorbing and dissipating the localized heat from the spot weld almost instantly.

So looks like a good way to align the 2 halves for this project.

Cheers Max.