Small angle/sine plate

[olderdan]

I needed a small adjustable angle plate to fit on my lathe crosslide and vertical slide for a project that requires accurate angles. This is only 4 inches square and was made from the last pieces of steel plate from my scrap box, hence the extra filled holes which I can live with. There is some pitting in the working faces but they have been scraped flat to a surface plate.
Although I have a Moore & Wright vernier protractor which gives 5 mins of angle, just out of curiosity I thought I would provide a sine function to the plates by virtue of a dowel exactly 3.25 inches from the pivot point and of the same diameter which fortunately has turned out to be accurate from my checks with the protractor and a 30 deg angle gauge. This could be a way to make a sine table for those without access to a surface grinder.
As it is a small plate I opted for M5 clamp screws instead of my usual M6 and made some dedicated clamps. It pivots on hollow hardened pins and being a small surface I could not afford the support plates to be above the surface, so curved arms made from brass sufficed giving 0 to 45 deg. There is not enough room for a fence to be added so 2 location pins can be used to support a parallel when needed. This plate can also be used on the lathe faceplate for indexed milling using my live toolpost spindle, its not pretty but it will do the work I need it for.
In this size it is more suited to a model engineer but could be scaled up if one has the material available.


I even found an empty router bit box to keep it all in.

[tonyfoale]

Alan,

Great job again. Sad to hear that has cleaned out your scrap box. I haven't reached that point yet but I am only too aware that I have no easy (read cheap) way of replenishing it any more. I still have a fair bit in the Aluminium box but the steel box is pretty low.

[olderdan]

Thanks Tony,
Yes its a shame I did not keep more scrap metal when it was there for the taking, I got so used to picking it when I needed it and the factory closed suddenly, so end of. There used to be four factory's locally but they have all closed. What I did have in stock has lasted me for 13 years so not too bad.

[tonyfoale]

Alan,
I have been self employed since 1973 so I haven't have much opportunity to accumulate scrap, except for the 3 years 2008-2010 when I had a real job in the US. It was like Xmas everyday when I passed the scrap bin, not just lumps of metal but bearings, nuts and bolts, gearboxes, old tooling and so on. Like you I didn't take full advantage of it. When I returned to Spain I put all that I had in a container to be sent back, along with a Bridgeport, lathe etc. The US is such a great place to get nice machine tools for little money. I like living in Spain but it is far from the best place to pursue my interests.

[DIYer]

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

Sine Plate by olderdan

tags: measurement, plate

[wizard69]

Thanks for the post! Your approach to spacing the pivots accurately has inspired me to use the same approach when I can find the time to do a similar sine plate. That is the bored ports for the pivots should be very easy to accomplish with good precision even in a modest shop. This design should be amendable to even a relatively narrow sin bar.

[marksbug]

I had planned on making one, then I found a niceley priced nicely built 12"x10"(I think thats the size) aluminum sineplate on flebay. it would be nice to have a compound plate......so...your plans may just push me over the edge. keep up the great work guys!!!!

[Toolmaker51]

Alan,
I have been self employed since 1973 so I haven't have much opportunity to accumulate scrap, except for the 3 years 2008-2010 when I had a real job in the US. It was like Xmas everyday when I passed the scrap bin, not just lumps of metal but bearings, nuts and bolts, gearboxes, old tooling and so on. Like you I didn't take full advantage of it. When I returned to Spain I put all that I had in a container to be sent back, along with a Bridgeport, lathe etc. The US is such a great place to get nice machine tools for little money. I like living in Spain but it is far from the best place to pursue my interests.

I'm sure this won't come as a revelation to you, but if there are material vendors and shops within decent radius, I recommend paying a visit. I've always worked in shops, at least half let me haul off steel at scrap rate or less. It's been .30¢ a pound long as I can remember. Others didn't restrict me at all, as long as it was drop [fall-off].

[marksbug]

we have 1 steel place left hear around me....they eff you in scrap as well as everything else. we do however have a recycle facility that usualy sells for3x the recycle pay price witch is still a good deal....if you can find what you want. so that's another avenue to search for goodies.

[Ralphxyz]

could you elaborate on: "I thought I would provide a sine function to the plates by virtue of a dowel exactly 3.25 inches from the pivot point and of the same diameter which fortunately has turned out to be accurate from my checks with the protractor and a 30 deg angle gauge. "

Exactly how does the dowel work? sorry I am new to machining.

Ralph