Thinking I need some angle blocks

[dryfarmer]

I been thinking that someday I will be wanting to mill a specific angle, and not have any angle blocks. Just the thought of not having what I need at hand in the drawer has me in cold sweats.
But I have no idea as to which style I should get, the notched ones or the all one plane ones. Maybe I should have two of the same style to help hold up wider pieces of metal. Are the cheap Chinese one good enough for the home shop. This keeping me awake at nite. So can somebody please help me decide, the tremors are starting to effect my ability to eat and I am already drinking my beer through a straw.

[elf]

I'm wondering what you'll do when you realize you don't have a CNC machine

[754]

I'm wondering what you'll do when you realize you don't have a CNC machine

Wait till you need to thread or cut a gear..
Build a swivel plate, use a protractor. .

[R.Bolte.Jr]

Make all ya need!

[dryfarmer]

Hay I like it
cheap and fun to do
Thanks
Heart failure adverted until I figure out why I need CNC

[Danl]

Post #5 at http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb...estion-175928/

Right out of Joe Pi's referenced Illinois Tool booklet. That plus most any cheap scientific calculator and you're in business.

Printing that page out just helps you get the image of the triangle correct - given values on side lengths or angles.

Dan L

[Mcgyver]

I've sets of both (nice stuff made by a tool maker) and the ones with the notch are imo far more handy. Mainly because when used in the vise with work on top, the work is held more more solidly - i.e. with it set on a parallel or the bottom of the vise, there a positive stop to forces along the Z.

Good idea in that video. Skip to 7:41 to see it. makes me nuts that every 20 second idea becomes a 12 minutes video, part of getting old and grumpy I suppose.

[J Tiers]

OK... I was skeptical about the idea, because the accuracy is dependent on how well you get the holes on location. (NO I did not listen to the whole 15 or whatever minutes).

However, using the 2.5" base. you have to be off location by 0.043" to be a degree wrong. So if instead, you can hold position to around 10 thou, you will be accurate to a quarter of a degree. Pretty decent for general work.

The longer you make the base, the more accurate it is at any particular error distance.

[TGTool]

Years back I worked with a moldmaker who had a nice set of angle blocks we'd borrow when need be. He had ones with a stop and ones without. If you needed to stack up blocks, the stop really helped. So, he didn't have seven degrees, but a five and a two made seven and nesting them helped setting up a lot.

I have a bunch in my toolbox, not yet finished, that have a tapped hole near the end to screw in a stop if needed. I regret they're still unfinished but they were a "government job" getting little bits of time here and there before I moved from the toolroom to another position. Now I don't have a surface grinder to finish them up so they sadly report for duty with only their original milled finish.

[jariou]

That makes me think of a little problem I figured out a long time ago.

Suppose you want to be able to produce every degree angle from 1 degree to 40.0 degrees, what is the minimum number of such blocks that you would have to make.

Of course, this is a "theoretical" question where it is assumed that your machining produces no errors that would add up.

Please provide an answer if you like the challenge and I'll post back later with the answer.

[RichR]

That makes me think of a little problem I figured out a long time ago.

Suppose you want to be able to produce every degree angle from 1 degree to 40.0 degrees, what is the minimum number of such blocks that you would have to make.

Of course, this is a "theoretical" question where it is assumed that your machining produces no errors that would add up.

Please provide an answer if you like the challenge and I'll post back later with the answer.

You could do it with 6 blocks. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 degrees. That would allow you to do from 1 to 63 degrees.

[cameron]

However, using the 2.5" base. you have to be off location by 0.043" to be a degree wrong. So if instead, you can hold position to around 10 thou, you will be accurate to a quarter of a degree. Pretty decent for general work.

.

It looks like hell if a woodwork joint is off that much, but OK I suppose for o lot of amateur machine work.

[jariou]

Hi RichR, I expected that answer. Good try.

But I can do it with 4 blocks only instead of your 6.

[cameron]

You could do it with 6 blocks. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 degrees. That would allow you to do from 1 to 63 degrees.

1,2,4,8, and 32 will do 1 to 40 degrees if you reverse blocks as needed.

[jariou]

That is still one block too many cameron!