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Tools – angle plates

A very useful tool when it comes to workholding or alignment is the angle plate. An angle plate is simple a device with two flat surfaces at right angles to each other.

The inside surfaces of an angle plate can either be the rough surface from when it is cast or they can be machined to be flat and parallel to the outer surfaces.

Angle plates are usually made from cast iron or steel

The end surfaces are always machined to be flat and square.

Large angle plates often have a web at the end unless they are machined on the inside in which case they are never webbed.

Angles plate might have two flat surface with no holes or slots in them at all. In this case it is up to the user to make whatever holes etc he finds useful. Otherwise an angle plate might have various patterns of holes and slots and T-slots that can be used for holding the angle plate to something or for holding workholding devices or workpieces onto the angle plate.

Perhaps its most useful property is that it can be used to turn a surface in one plane into another surface at right angles to the first one.  Suppose we have a milling table that is horizontal. If an angle plate is placed upon this surface, one surface of the angle plate will be parallel to the milling table but the other will be at right angles to it.

fig rotating a surface through 90º

A second useful property is that it can be used to “transfer” a surface or edge at one height into another at a very different height. This is very useful when the edge etc is too high above the milling table to fit against a square etc at the surface of the milling table

Fig transferring the height of a round workpiece