You might be better off with one of those “finger” belt sanders to get most of it smoother.

Hi MikeK,  don’t know why they put four slots in one side, as it doesn’t look very good for bolting down for the two outside ones that are nearly up to the webs. The first 3″ x 2″ angle plate I bought, wasn’t very even on the bolting side, and there was a large radius between the bolting slots and the webs, and bolting it down was a bit clumsy, so I cured mine by milling it, so as to make better room for nuts and washers.

Regards Nick.

On 1 July 2024 at 10:57 Nicholas Farr Said:

Hi MikeK,  don’t know why they put four slots in one side, as it doesn’t look very good for bolting down for the two outside ones

But does let you clamp a larger item to it due to more space betweens slots, If you use a tee nut and stud on the back then the proximity of the webs is not  a problem. I quite often use a teen not as it does not turn when you have one hand holding the work, one the clamps and the third holding the spanner

Hi, my biggest one is 6″ wide and only has three slots between the webs which gives better room for nuts and washers, and has had a number of large pieces attached to it without any problems of movement, and it hasn’t needed any fettling at all, but I’m not saying there is anything wrong with what JasonB has said, although making an exact copy of an industrial one, doesn’t always work very well on hobby machines.

Regards Nick

I had no option but to partially mill the webs on my angle plate. It has four slots and the end ones didn’t have enough room for nuts and washers. Hard to believe suppliers sell stuff like this.

On 1 July 2024 at 14:36 MikeK Said:

Thanks for the replies, gents.

I can’t get a finger sander just yet (I do want one, though).

What I just noticed is that the four slots aren’t evenly spaced.  It probably should have been one for the reject pile.  I’ll make some simple T-nuts and ruin a couple Dremel stones today.

Mike

 

Maybe not. Angle plates, like many lathe faceplates,  usually have cast-in slots, so they are not precision machined and may not necessarily be in exact positions. Patterns move around in the casting process, moulds distort, and castings distort.

Hence, T-nuts are usually not recommended. T-nuts are designed to fit in a machined T slot. Faceplates and angle plates with rough cast slots and uneven back surfaces work better with plain flat washers and nuts to grip on to the uneven surfaces and cock at an angle if one side is higher than the other. Plus you get to use the very ends of the slots which T nuts will not access.

A Dremel grinder seems rather small for such clean up work. Those expensive little grinding tips don’t last very long on a relatively larger job. If you don’t have a regular size die grinder (which most of us don’t) you can buy the regular size die grinder tips with the 1/4″ /6mm shanks and a stone from half to one inch diamater,  cheap enough and spin it in an electric drill. Most corded drills will spin fast enough for it to work ok for this type of clean up work.

There is a lot can be done too with abrasive flap wheels in the pistol drill, and others in fitted to 4″ angle grinder etc, although they wont get into sharp corners. For knocking out/off that congealed casting sand and iron dust, lot can be done too with a cold chisel or even a welder’s chipping hammer, or even just then end of a handy bit of steel bar ground to a bit of a point.

Don’t feel too bad about the poor quality of the finish on your angle plate. My mate bought a not-cheap mid-sized Chinese milling machine from a reputable supplier to industry and hobbyists that had the same: painted over casting sand and iron dust still stuck to the castings. Including INSIDE the gearbox. Now, that took some fettling — in the original sense of the word, as it happens.

While you are at it, run a try-square over your angle plates and make sure they are actually square. Not all are created equal and some could use a touch up with a fly cutter to make them truly square. That matters more than the state of the cast surfaces.

You  could make your tee nuts like this that would allow you to get closer to the end of the slots

Not much we can really do about it, but … does anyone agree with me that smaller slots would have been much more useful ?

MichaelG.

I’d rather have the versatility of the wider slots. Quite often I will fix the angle plate to the mill with M10 and then use M10, 8 or 6 to hold the work depending on what it is and what clamps etc fit best.

I also find my pair of webless angle plates more versatile as the backs are machined I can hold one leg in the vice or join two together in a “U” shape if needed.

You wil see my angle plates in use in just about every built thread I post and the vive comes on and off many times in a build but just to expand what I said last night

Two plates bolted together and to the table with M10 fixings as that is what fits the 12mm slot width of the mill’s table but M6 used to hold work to the plate. Bolted together in a U shape and the upper one angled to suit the job, the U shape is often more compact than the only option of “Z” with webbed plates so ideal for smaller hobby machines

Same job different setup again M10 to table and M6 to work. Note that the flat back without webs allows me to place G clamps anywhere I want if there is no may to use the slots.

Not sure I would have wanted to use just M6 fixings on a job like this . The M10 clamp sets also make good machinists jacks