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Originally Posted by Windston
Also I can never seem to get the diffraction spikes perfect! A real eye sore!
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Though it could be related to collimation, most likely it is not. A miscollimated scope could push a screw head into the lightpath inducing a spike but even for a perfectly collimated scope any mechanical intrusion into the lightpath will induce a spike.
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was centering the spider vanes, because I could use calipers! And that gives a definitive amount to move something by! Not just, awww yea mate, that looks centered to me when I hold my head this way! 
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Centering the spider vanes is less important than ensuring opposite vanes are inline or at least in parallel. If centering the spikes means introducing a small angle between opposite vanes then you will exacerbate spikes in your photo.
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'Make sure the clips of the primary are all equal in the secondary',
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High precision is not required for this alignment. Ideally, you want to evaluate this alignment from a point where the primary apparent size is the same as the secondary mirror. Both should coincide as shown in the attachment. Then again, close enough is good enough for this alignment. Errors in this alignment will be manifested as an uneven illumination intensity in your photo. No spikes and no coma will be introduced with this error.
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I have an Autocollimator coming any day now, which might help,
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Which one are you getting? Are you getting one of the new astro XLK autocollimators from Catseye?
Jason