Raw angle plate

Hi, if like me, you are a beginner with a new mill to play with and have Harold halls 'a complete milling course' Book I have some bad news. College engineering have no raw casting angle plates and have no plans to make anymore.

I have tried to google some more but with no success. Any ideas? Of course I could just buy some new finished ones but that's not the point of a course in milling is it!

Best regards

Keith MM

I suppose you could pop into your local structural steel fabricators and see if you can get an offcut of angle, weld in a couple of triangular webbs and then treat it as a casting. You could probably get away with no webs if you get 10 or 12mm thick angle.

With teh low cos of imported ready machined angles there can't be much demand for the raw castings and College are obviously running down their stocks. Looks like a finished one can be had for about £1 more than the raw casting so add in a worn cutter an does not make ecconomic sense to a lot of people.

Edited By JasonB on 26/12/2015 07:58:47

Edited By JasonB on 26/12/2015 08:00:31

Keith,

I would look out for a rusty old, second-hand, angle plate.

... decent material, well-seasoned

Then treat it as a re-machining exercise.

MichaelG.

Try here for angle plate castings Link plus other items.

Mike

Buy a cheap finished one. The one I got (Groz) was at least a mm out and use it as raw material, it will be far better when finished. Look for a nice thick one then finish to a higher standard.

Steve

I use an angle iron angle plate, as described by Jason, with no troubles, although I would prefer a heavier one, maybe 5/8", or 3/4" thick, but still with diagonal bracing, I think something could be welded up from a couple of bits of steel plate. With say 3/4" there would be plenty of metal to machine it square.

Ian S C

I was thinking along the lines that Steve and Mike suggest but see they have beaten me to it. However, the link Mike gives for Hemingway kits has heavy duty alloy castings for the faceplates so the machining process will be a little different, but of course the set ups will be the same which is the main purpose of the exercise.

Another possibility is that Hemingway's Quick set face plate also includes an angle plate using an iron casting so this is much the same as the College eng, one but a little smaller. Perhaps Hemingway would be prepared to supply you just the angle plate, worth a try.

Details for machining this faceplate, and the angle plate. is covered on my website here , machining the angle plate being much like the process I describe in the book.

Harold

Groz do blank cast iron angle without slots. Think I may have got mine from Axminter Power Tools.

My Brother in law has recently made patterns for a tilting/swivelling angle plate. I had a set cast off at the same time so that is a new year project. Works out dearer than buying one but so much better.

Bringing an old thread back to life. I am looking at getting some castings done and a small number of angle plates will be part of the order.

would there be any interest in some from this forum?

would only supply Europe as the shipping costs will be insane.

Have a look at WDS web site for cast iron sections loads of options angle, square, T section. Ready for machining loads of sizes.

David

Can't see many model engineers wanting to pay those WDS prices, when the old college casting cost about £15 having to pay £150 for a similar size angle plate and then machine it will be a bit much for most.

A long defunct local steel fabricating company ,at one time were a bit short of work so they made some heavy angle plates,about 10 inches long with sides of 8 inches,no webs,they used flat steel plate possibly one inch thick,for their own use. the plates were welded together ,i was told that they were annealed after welding,and prior to machining. My friend who worked there aquired some of the plates when the factory closed, some years later he gave me two of these plates, they were a bit rusty so I cleaned them up and found they were out of square by about two thou over 8 ins, so I set them up on my col triumph face plate using a good cast iron angle plat eand machined them square,after ten tears they are still square.so it can be done but the welding must be first class , I have some WDS cast iron angles,and a U section which is very useful, most I picked up at s/h dealers,auto jumbles or gifts from friends,they are very accurate ,new sections from WDS are horendously expensive ,if you buy a foreign angle plate or a used one take a good sqare with you and check the angle plate for squareness ,some can be out of square.