Angle Finder

[rossbotics]

While toying around the other day with some angle plates and a protractor thinking of another tool to make, it dawned on me that no one has ever made one of these on Home Made Tools before, or at least to my knowledge, this tool is by no means a new idea, you can get these things from any HardwareStore, Home Depot, Lowes, Harbor Freight, Etc. for a few bucks, the only thing is their all made from plastic, I despise plastic tools.

I made this Angle Finder especially for quick setups in the milling machine vise; I have all sorts of 4” long angle plates but sometimes you need to create an angle you don’t have an angle plate for, most of the time the angles you’re creating on the end of a work piece is not that critical anyway so this devise will work fine, when I do need that kind of precision I’ll accommodate that issue with a surface plate, sine bar and gage blocks.

I made this tool with a 3/8” wide edge so it can sit on the part being held in the vise and not be too cumbersome, some of those plastic models I seen out there have about a 3/4”-1” wide base, way to wide for resting on something in a milling machine vise.

The base was made from 4140 steel not hardened but ground; the protractor head was made from 6061 aluminum, the indicator from 360 brass, the scale was created in AutoCAD and printed on decal paper with four coats of clear enamel.

I have included a few photos of the machining process along with the tool being used.

As always thanks for looking and happy machining
Doug