Harold Hall

First Page

With that done the angle plate should be mounted conventionally onto the machine table and the long edge also finish machined, This to ensure that it is parallel with the angle plates base. Repeat for the other long edge.

Belated task

At this time I started to consider the painting stage and decided the rear of the casting would need a lot of attention, such as filling the cavities, if they were to look presentable after painting. I did not warm to this idea so belatedly decided to machine the rear of each one, Photograph 17.

I did not expect perfection as a few of the blemishes were quite deep and would have needed rather more metal removed than I would have liked, in particular in view of the next modification I am detailing. However, if the viewer also chooses to machine the rear of the casting this should be done prior to finish machining the face, that is prior to Photograph 9. The reason for this is that at this stage the casting may move a little and the face then no longer being flat, though in my case I could not detect that.

T-Slots

The working face of the angle plate has just three slots with one at either end being quite close to the casting's edge, necessary, due to the lugs on the rear. However, this will make it difficult to find a surface onto which packing for the outer end of a bar clamp could be placed and I felt this would make it difficult to secure a workpieces in some cases and considered adding two further slots

Even so, I was not confident that this will provide the adaptability that I would be looking for and considered the possibility of adding T-slots, Photograph 18 showing that this is what I eventually did. Should the viewer wish to take the same approach then the casting will have to be set up as previously seen in photograph 9.

First, the central leg of the T-slot should be made to its full depth followed by using the T-slot cutter to produce the arms and just skim the base of the central leg. Do machine one slot fully at a time as if all three legs are made it will then be necessary to return and individually realign the machine spindle with each one when the arms are made.

Metalworking

Workshop Projects

Tilting angle plate, Adjustable angle plate, Machining