Angle Plate

Home Made Angle Plate: Cost $1.00

Cut from a large U-shaped piece of channel/girder plus a few bolts & bits of steel from my scrap box. The base is about 10mm thick, the face about 6mm thick.

Cut from girder with angle grinder to approximately 7" wide by 6" high by 3" deep.

Drilled base holes to suit tee-slots on cross-slide & holes in face for clamping (at 20mm centres with 8mm drill).

Cut 4 short strips of steel to fit tee-slots, drilled & tapped for 8 short bolts. These clamp the plate to the cross-slide.

Cleaned up rough ends with angle grinder, draw filed to smooth.

Cut 4 strips of steel 1" x 1/8" to act as reinforcing webs. Welded them in place on the rear - remember, weld before facing off.

Bolted plate to cross-slide, squared to faceplate, face down & faced off base with my home-made fly-cutter. Always face off the thickest part first, the thinnest part can't afford to have too much removed in making it a right angle, without weakening it.

Assembled plate, bolts etc. Bolted base to cross-slide, squared to faceplate & faced off the front face with the fly-cutter.

This is one of the most useful lathe items I have made. I can either bolt my work direct to its face or bolt on a small drilling vice which then holds the work at almost any angle.

It was a good intermediate step to tide me over until I found a milling machine - which came further down the track.