Thread: Adventures with cast iron - a wood plane.

BT..for these purposes I guess it doesn't matter much, but are you using the angle scale on your table for the 47.5º angle, or some other means? I bought a Wixey angle indicator last year- it has a 0.1º resolution, and apparent accuracy too as checked against a couple of my angle gauge blocks. I haven't yet checked it against Frau Deckel's universal table. (Or vice versa, more correctly)

GQ

Gregory,

The table only tilts to 45 degrees. I intend angling the piece of cast iron in the vise jaws the additional 2 1/2 degrees. The only reasonably accurate device I have for setting the angle is a Starrett vernier protractor. As you suggest, it hardly matters. I have thought about buying a sine bar and I've wondered whether it would be possible to make do with adjustable parallels rather than gauge blocks. The Wixey seems to be a simple and inexpensive instrument. The machine needs to be level. Mine leans forward. If I wasn't quite as lazy as I am, I would have fitted adjustable feet to the mill.

Back to angle measurement. While nowhere near as accurate as the Wixey ( forget minutes of arc) I'd love a little Reglus angle indicator and it's companion, the stunning cross drilling jig.
angle indicator

BT

BT,

I am continually amazed at the gear you have. It seems I started far too late in life to amass all those precious instruments. Greg is another who seems to collect from the museum catalogue of life.

I have great respect for you blokes, and will continue to learn.

Wouldn't it be great if a big Forum get together could be arranged?
We could take over the Crown Casino for a night, and finish up in GQ's hanger for a nightcap.

He will kill me for this idea......

Ken

KJ,

The Reglus isn't mine. All I have are photos and lust.

BT

Originally Posted by Anorak Bob

The Reglus isn't mine. All I have are photos and lust.

Say it isn't so BT! Is that the one tool you don't have?
What a very neat idea though and knocking up something like that would be pretty easy(the angle gauge not the cross drilling jig).
Shame the table "only" tilts to 45degrees...... mine doesnt tilt at all :'(
I assume it "only" tilts down forward 45 degrees?
Don't you have an angle plate large enough to bolt it to?
Great work as always and great pictures.

Stuart

Don't start Stuart! . My concern is rigidity ( no comments there either! ). I will proceed with the set up as is then maybe look at using the angle plate.

Sadly the table only swivels 30 degrees either side in the horizontal plane and is inclinable 30 degrees backwards and forwards. Sometimes you just have to make do.

BT

Originally Posted by Anorak Bob

Sometimes you just have to make do.

lol They should have a little smile to that right thats called "coffee nose" I'm sure you get the picture.

When I was looking at mills I saw a few like that and thought "what would you need all that for?" Since getting a rotary table and wanting to mount it at about 4 degrees to the table, I now know.
Stuart

BT...thank you so much for posting that Reglus. One more damned thing now.

Those pesky Swiss make some nifty gear. As a piece of art that drilling jig is wonderful. I am still trying to find a suitable x-y table for my drill press to go with the Heinrich vise. (more of which later)

GQ

A Hauser X-Y table. What a delight!

Oh! I forgot to mention the "buy it now" price. $1350 ex USA. Might take the edge off the ardour.

Ooooh. But hark! What darkness through yon window breaks? Why, it is Juliet, frowning upon such thoughts of lust for yet one more machine tool I'd have to sneak over to Shylocks joint to get the cash for that. Then we'd see just how strained the quality of mercy would be.*

Last year there was a NOS Fehlmann x-y table that was going begging for $300 for the longest time. If only I had succumbed to the temptation then before I knew I needed it.

*That jet-like sound you hear is the Bard spinning in his grave.

Wow, wow, wow, too fast. Can we back up to the Reglus angle indicator.

How on earth does this work, and what's that gizmo shown in the right hand photos?

I'll wait!

Ken

The angle indicator works with a weighted needle which always indicates straight up. Since it is absolute your machine has to be level in order to get the angle accurately indicated.

The other gismo uses drill bushings to guide the drill after you have (optically?) located the mark and fixed the workpiece in the jig.

Originally Posted by Greg Q

Since it is absolute your machine has to be level in order to get the angle accurately indicated.

Isn't it more of a comparator(if that's the right word).
It measures the change in angle from the position that you first put it on.

If the head was at 90deg to the bed when you put it on, it will give you the right reading whether the machine was level or not.

Stuart

As always I could be wrong

Come to think of it, maybe I am wrong. If you zero out the indicator bezel first the way we always do then it would indeed read relative change, and the starting condition (level or not) would not matter.