Don’t often see one like that, that way up!

It’s as good a way as any. Rough and ready might be a level sat on the bevel.

An angle vise comes in handy for jobs such as that. But you just do it with what you have available, until your collection of holding options grows.

I have angle piece plates which you can put in the vice which set's the angle by pushing the the V block up to. IE 15 – 20 – 30 – 45 degrees it makes such jobs a bit more simple.

David

I have zero trust in the nasty plastic protractor on a mini lathe, and always use a square or an angle gauge to set the compound. This would put me off using an angle plate or angle vice but I just realised that the same angle plate could be used to set the angle of the compound as well. David's method doesn't even require accurate angle plates, and I could make my own as long as I used the same one for both setups.

To be honest though, if nobody was looking I would probably not have planned ahead and would have put a square against the end of the vice, then felt guilty that I didn't clock it as Robin has done.

Regardless, all the methods on this thread so far look like less faffing around than tilting the head and re-tramming the mill afterwards.

Brian

Well put Andrew, I never chase thous unless it is required. Following on from Jasons method I regularly bolt two angle plates together to give the tilt required.

Horses for courses. Does it really matter how you do it, as long as the end result works. And I quite agree with Andrew, why waste time over measuring something that most people will only glance at before putting their hand on it.

Cheers,

Peter G. Shaw

Agreed, good enough is perfect.

But for someone who is an amateur machinist, aiming for good precision when it is not really required is good practice for when it is required.

I once made a couple of paxolin spacers for mounting a numberplate. I was rather disappointed when I measured them an found that the difference in thickness was 0.005".

Chasing accuracy for the fun of it?

JimB

Being realistic, if the part is the base of a clamp for a toolpost clamp, setting with a spirit level, or a digital angle gauge should be OK. Visually, unless it is well out of line, unlikely to cause a problem. Unless you are an absolute perfectionist with time to spare.

It won't function any better because it is within a second of a degree!.

If it has to interface with some other part so that the angles match then things will be different.

Again, as long as the angles complement each other, is the absolute value critical?

Howard