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

[NortonDommi]

I use one of those digital with magnetic base inclinometers but yours has class!

[fandres]

Nice job Doug this is a useful tool to have and another thing that will keep me busy.

[Radioman]

Nice work. First class!

[mklotz]

Most of the commercial ones, of which I have two, have a full 360 degree protractor scale. This allows one to measure angles overhead. (Imagine measuring the pitch angle of a roof from inside the attic.)

Since Doug's has only a 180 degree protractor one might expect that it can't make such measurements, but they would be wrong. The trick is to put a right angle plate against the "roof" and measure the angle relative to vertical of the part that extends outward from the "roof". This angle is the complement of the pitch angle so simple arithmetic will yield the desired measurement.

It should be obvious that this trick is used to measure any angle that is greater than ninety degrees.

In reality, Doug's 180 degree setup is a feature, making the tool more compact and thus easier to store.

[rossbotics]

I use one of those digital with magnetic base inclinometers but yours has class!

Thanks NortonDommi

[rossbotics]

Nice job Doug this is a useful tool to have and another thing that will keep me busy.

Thank You
Yea it's just a quick setup thing, nothing high end, sometimes you need to put a quick angle on the end of something, that's what it's made for

[rossbotics]

Nice work. First class!

Thank You
It came out pretty good, will work fine for it's intensions

[rossbotics]

Most of the commercial ones, of which I have two, have a full 360 degree protractor scale. This allows one to measure angles overhead. (Imagine measuring the pitch angle of a roof from inside the attic.)

Since Doug's has only a 180 degree protractor one might expect that it can't make such measurements, but they would be wrong. The trick is to put a right angle plate against the "roof" and measure the angle relative to vertical of the part that extends outward from the "roof". This angle is the complement of the pitch angle so simple arithmetic will yield the desired measurement.

It should be obvious that this trick is used to measure any angle that is greater than ninety degrees.

In reality, Doug's 180 degree setup is a feature, making the tool more compact and thus easier to store.

Your right Marv
I have one of those as well, it works fine for any angle anywhere , the base on my plastic one is so wide it's absolutely useless on the mill vise, the unit I made is only 3/8" wide and only needs to have 180° movement, 90° for either side of the vise

[DIYer]

Thanks rossbotics! We've added your Angle Finder to our Measuring and Marking category,
as well as to your builder page: rossbotics's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Angle Finder by rossbotics

tags: angle, measurement