Making super accurate angle cuts on the mill - GREAT TRICK !! 

Here I am, 81 years old and learning trig. Fantastic!!! I love it, Joe!

Thanks. You just saved me a small pile of money. I had been thinking buying a set of angle gages. After watching your vid I scampered out to the shop, squared up a bunch of 1/4" x 4" by 3" aluminum plates, and then used the DRO to drill and ream .251" holes on 3.000" centers on the X and appropriate offsets on the Y. By putting four holes in each plate I could make two angle blocks from most of the square plates. I sawed them splitting the two angles and used my little Rong Fu to finish the angle on each one. Took about 3 hours. Now I have a nice set of aluminum angle blocks from 0.5 to 30 degrees (0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20, 22.5, 25, 30).

Thank you for sweating your balls off longer than you needed to, to share your knowledge with everyone.

Our website address www.advancedinnovationsllc.com

Your tips are absolute Gold Joe. Thank you so much!

"It is probably Greek if you've never done trigonometry". Even if you have!

Thanks for staying late on a hot afternoon to explain this.

Great tip! I was wondering how to make my own. You’re an absolute champion for sharing your knowledge and expertise for those wanting to learn. Thank you so much!

Great video Joe you are a very good teacher.

Joe, you're great for parting with your knowledge, FOR FREE! It's much appreciated. This is a great tip.

Another AWESOME video !! Thanks Joe !

Thank you Sir, You are truly skilled and knowledgeable, always something to learn. And oh yeah! Texas! Can I ask what your education background is, and from where today can you really get comprohensive training

I'm cutting custom bevel gears and need a special angle plate for a setup gage. This is perfect. Thanks, John

in the uk the charts are in a zues book trig tables, hardness charts,tapping sizes pitch circle diameters drill charts great little book still have one!!

Thank you, I learned so much in such little time. hope you do more videos like this, I'm a hobbyist and if I can learn from this video ,anybody can.

Love your presentation style. Would have taken other creators 45 mins to explain... LOL

It's 2020 now Joe. Thank you for taking some time back in 2016 to teach me now.

some people buy expensive equipment and tools but did a little precision works。 This kind of trick is very good!

I am an untrained hobby / miniature engineer and your videos are clear concise tutorials for me. Thought provoking. Many thanks

Yet another GREAT video packed full of great info you only get from years and years of experience! Thanks for sharing your knowledge Joe! Please keep the videos coming! Jason

Long time toolmaker here. In this situation, I superglue the jig to the back jaw and use a stop on lower end of the part. When done, knock off the jig and razor off the glue.

I would like to see how you marked and drilled the holes. I get the concept but I feel like the most important part was never shown. :(

Heheheh! I chuckled when you say it’s all Greek!

I used this trick first time today, to make a few hold downs for a small parts clamping block that I built; and even though didn't need huge precision, I did it anyway. I'm just a hobbyist with a garage shop, but never the less, I loved the time savings; and the parts all have matching angles. ...Almost makes me look like I really know what I'm doing... ;) Thanks Joe!

Don't making shooting these videos harder than it needs to be. The information is the important part. Your hand held shots are good enough. Thanks for passing on your great setup ideas. By the way, Pierre sent me.

I just made a 45° and a 30° (w 60° as a by-product) angle gages using your method. Done the sketch on CAD : even easier than using the trig tables. Your trick works great Thanks for the videos

Such a great, simple, and easy idea! Also, I've never seen such a high like/dislike ratio on a video before! You are the best!

Joe !, im now addicted to your instructional videos, please make a million more, may god keep you in good health , we need guys like you on the web

Joe, I recently bought a used 13" x 40" Clausing lathe exactly like yours and figured out all the controls except HOW TO VARY THE FEED RATE when turning and facing. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Are these trig tables in Machinery's Handbook?

Thank you Joe.

Trig?!? Nonsense! I have a DRO! (joking) I hate that I have to look this stuff up every time, because, well, "every time" isn't often enough, I guess. :/ Great shop craft.

Great Work Joe love watching your videos I had an idea while watching your video.? Can you make poor mans Index Angle plate by drilling some more holes ??

Technically, according to you, that was all the info you had on the drawing. You just assumed it was 90 degrees. What if it was 89 or 91? Just busting your chops. Great vid.

Good thing I'm Greek I guess...By the way 92F (33C) is considered a cool breeze here in August and I hate it (Usualy we are around 105F to 110F in the shadow...the sun is literally incapacitating and it's only made worse when you are monitoring a 81MW steam boiler for a tobacco plant)

Very nice , would you have any videos using "tooling gauge balls " for compound angles ,milling and drilling , think everyone would be interested in that ?

Thanks Joe, practical, useful information well demonstrated.

Being off by 0.001" over 2.5" would make your angle block off by 0.022 degrees or 1.375 minutes. Not bad, at all! Thanks.

I appreciate you taking your off-work time to spread your knowledge to a very interested audience. You explain concepts well and make great real-world machines to demonstrate. Sorry that your shop gets so warm. Cooling such a large area is expensive. Well done and God bless.

Time for a cold beer Joe ?

Joe, I have a question you might be able to help me with. Is there an email I can contact you at? My question is on my Sharp lathe concerning the gearbox chart, TPI, Pitch, DP and Module, What is DP diametral pitch and Module? Or more precisely how is it used on the lathe? I have pics if you need them. I have been recently turning veryfine metric threads for camera lens threads and a video on converting tpi to pitch and vise-versa might be an interesting subject for a new threading video.

I made a set of angle gauges as an apprentice...hardened and ground still have them today from 1977. 5 7.5 15 20 30 45 60 90

Dang it,,,doing a crash course this morning with my 13th edition Machinery Handbook open to page 199,,,(@@),, Now to got out to mill and make some angle plate attempts,,, thx Joe as always.

How would you fixture a 1 inch wide flat bar 200 thou thick and 12 inches long on the mill, to mill 60 degree dovetail shoulders if you had to do a small production run of them? Fixture flat and nod the head to 30 degrees tilt, - and mill with a flat face end mill - or fixture vertically in a vice with a stop and use a 60 degree carbide end mill without nodding the head of the mill. Any particular steel flat bar I should employ? Stress relieved? Thanks heaps, it’s doing my head in. I believe the original I’m trying to copy was extruded to its current profile in long lengths.

Great vids!Mate can you do threads for a seat. I mean a stool I want to make that’s adjustable. So maybe ACME ? Internal and external please?

Hey Joe, just bumped into this one. . .there is a free app for the i-phone (I have no affiliation with the app developer) its called Trig Solver. You can punch in any 2 unknowns and get all of the other sides and angles, etc . . .just thought I would toss that tid bit out for your viewers

I would really like to see different ways to cut different angles on a mill. I'm a little lost on whether I should give it a vise swivel base or some other option

Trig is great to learn as it can be so useful in making things . A great book is The Machinery Handbook or even the Zeus Book in Britain , the latter is inexpensive and really handy , the former is a brilliant book .

On oil-well probes (round part thats around 6 feet long) we set the angle by super gluing angle blocks to side which are squared to a ledge along the part...

for angle cutting on the mill /lathe get a construction master calculator with run/rise/pitch(angle)/diagonal functions and you can forget about the cosine/tangent calculations

Jon, your feed motors don't sound smooth. How is the consistency of your rate?

Brilliant, as always :)

Great video, The catalog idea is very good advice for anyone to learn the trade. Thank You.....

Ref indicating the vise jaws. You say the jaws might be dirty because you know they're ground and true. How do you know your vise is perfectly mounted on the table to begin with?..... ahh, crap - having watched the rest, I see you really did mean flat on top, not precision aligned with the table's direction of travel. It is the latter I could use help with. I change between 3 different vises on my table all the time. Do you have any jigs or tricks for getting them aligned in a hurry?

Great job! Thanks for passing on the knowledge.

Triangles never lie, unlike parents squares and "other" polygons

another great video mate. but your hands are way to shaky to be not using a tripod or an anti shake camera. sorry, but it was unwatchable for me.

Great tutorial, I wish my school would teach these kinds of tricks

Those ITW trig books. I've had several and have no idea what happened to them.

I have the need for a lathe & a milling machine and everything else, I want good quality tools and where’s the place to get them. I’m 70 years old and I want to make rifles (buckle list) Thanks a lot Scott B. “I love your videos ”

Awesome 👍 But What if I have a large block how to hold it at angle?

I don’t know Joe, you’re really taking too many liberties.

Joe, another fantastic video.!!! I have a similar, but different, set-up problem. I am trying to mill an edge on a 1/4" thick by 1/2" wide piece of 360 brass in the vise so that I can mill both edges at 30 degrees. In other words I am trying to mill a 6 inch long trapezoid (namely, a replacement gib) ) out of a rectangular piece of brass. I can accomplish this on my mini mill of my friend's Bridgeport (which can nod to 30 degrees but my friend hates taking his Bridgeport mill out of correct tram). I am looked for an answer all over and this video seems the closest. Please let me know your thoughts and/or solution.

Here I am almost 70 and I know Algebra.

Any advice on holding saw cut square bars in a lathe?

Nice 👍. Wyi I use a trig app on my phone really quick.

Hey joe I just remembered the name of that attachment it is called a tracer attachment. and you can run a thread on it at any angle for the length of your bed

Being doing something similar for about 30 years

Great tip Joe, love your work, very much appreciate the time and effort you put into all your videos.

Hi sir milling machine gears cutting 45' calculator

That background noise lol I couldn't even fi ish the video

Joe you have taught me so much. Thank you bro.

Joe you are amazing. This tip is Awesome! Thank you for being so willing to sharing your experience.

What brand of files do you recommend?

Hello Mr, Pieczynski,Would you please make a video on what you think would be the best way to make T blocks for a mill, drill press ect. This video would include information on the following.1. T block material.2. Measuring of the machine slots.3. Amount of clearance between the T block and the machine slots.4 . Best bolt size for T Blocks.5. Height of T block.6. T block safety.Another video that would be useful would be a video on how to clamp your work to the machine for machining.Thank you,Bill Tullar

wrecked my back, watching videos to fill the boredom... watched this one again, and slapped my head going, yea.... forgot about this one.

Thanks for this information. I am planning on using it as the milling machine project in an Intro to Machine Shop Safety and Operation class at Fresno Ideaworks, a local makerspace. I hope this OK. I am acknowledging you and your RU-vid channel in the class notes. Regards, Bill Frame

92 deg! This is boilin hot! 8 deg more and water boils! Stay safe! Take precautions! Check for vulcanic activity under da shop!

Just found this video- Great idea to use 0.25 inch End Mills as a gage pin! Checking them with a micrometer- there crazy close (+/- 0.000 3 on my cheapies) Thanks Joe PIe!

Joe, I have been in the trade longer than. Your videos are the best of any on You Tube. I wish my shop was as clean and well organized as yours. I have two suggestions: 1.) if you have a cylindrical square do a video on it, very few machinist even know what a cylindrical square is or how to use it. I think of that since you tend to point the necessity of squareness this would be a good topic to cover. 2.) And along the lines of a clean and well organized shop it should go hand in hand with GOOD hand tools. Ever tried any Noga tools. Made in Israel........very good tools, NOT cheap, a mag base would be a good place to start. Thanks Eric..........Please keep up the good work!

Joe Pie videos are like the moment when you're staring at one of those "3D Fractal" posters from the 90s and suddenly it all becomes clear as day and a giant tiger pops out of nowhere. And you're just left thinking, son of a b-^ch, brilliant...

Hi Joe Stefan Gotteswinter of Germany had mentioned and also posted an exact link to Your website on one of his videos I was watching. Tried going thru' my History to trace exactly which one but it seems easier said than done. That's how I got to Your web site. Sorry I can't help further. He has U as one of his listed "Subscriptions" on his site, if that helps !!! Whilst we are here, we need some help with a machining project just to confirm the "sequence of cuts" and would kindly ask if U will contact us directly via an email so's we can explain the job on hand in detail, please; ie. if U would kindly oblige. Otherwise, we understand, U are a busy Man and time is money !! TIA aRM

I missed a critical step or two... (1) given your triangle template, how did you go about transferring that to the part? (2) assuming you have some pin-holes on the part, how did you ensure your drill was centered with those holes? -- Thanks in advance, or come tardy...

You don't detail how you get the 2 holes aligned with the bottom edge of the piece (you did this off-camera). (I would drill 3 holes in a triangle .901 x 2.500, put in the 2 pins, machine the hypotenuse, per your technique, then flip over, move pin from 2nd to 3rd hole, rest on vice, and machine long leg. That will get the 2 sides of the triangle referenced from the 3 holes you drilled in 1 chucking. (If you flip correctly, you can even cancel out vice jaw not being parallel to X--axis errors). Your scheme relies on your vice being exactly squared about vertical axis, which is usually the one that is in error (I assume you drilled holes with aluminum flat in vice, long leg of triangle-to-be against back jaw?). Another method is to machine stair-step into aluminum with back edge resting down into vice or on parallel. Flip this over and rest on parallel. Top edge will be at desired angle. (You are essentially making a custom sine-bar, with sharp corners instead of rollers). Remember: it is easier to get multiple holes aligned amongst themselves than holes aligned with a pre-existing edge (machined in a separate chucking).

From the design side, I designed aerospace cameras and paper mill equipment, and I hardly ever used a sine or cosine. I worked the tangent, which I find the easiest to use, and always ended up with spot-on x and y dimensions, which made the machinists happy. They didn't have to do the trig. Just x and y. Nice trick! I'm not a machinist, just a woodworker dabbling in machining, and I'm glad I subscribed. Gems like this video keep me coming back!

I notice this video has 2 DIS likes. Just goes to prove there are 2 morons in this world! Great video again... love your work. You just saved me $200 in angle blocks

Joe, Have watch several of you videos and am blow away with your knowledge and ability to communicate these techniques. Thanx so much for sharing you expertise. I actually live in Blanco and would love to come over to Austin and visit some time. Thanx again.

Great to see you mending nicely, Joe!

Hi. Though you have explained the trig to make an angle block to place workpieces constantly the same position, i would like to know how to deal with a machine vice which unfortunately has uneven angle marker to turn the vice at an angle at 1 side, then turned opposite side for same angle position. Im about to scrap it and get a new 1. But would like to know another option or 2 if you dont mind😅

Hello Joe, do you have a source available for the Pocket edition Illinois Workshop Trigonometry reference guide, MSC do not have it I have searched on line eBay Amazon McMaster it must be out of print, I use Zeus most of the time for quick ref but Illinois would be handy, Edmund..........Alberta,

Joe, this is a great tip. I am a home shop machinist and used this video tip to create a 29.5 Deg right triangle using a 3 pin or hole pattern layout. This allowed me to get that perfect 29.5/60.5/90 I needed for setting my compound angle on my lathe. I made mine out of .125" brass and it has become a goto tool. Thank you so much for your videos, tips, and tricks. Keep up the great productions. I truly enjoy how you make many quandaries simple!

Awesome. Great technique!

Hi Like your tricks. Can you please suggest how to mill a thin wall approx 2mm plastic ABS part from a solid block need 2 to 3 setups. For example a car side mirror back cover.

Joe Is there a video on what you shop does and also how you started in learning & your path as a machinist & how you started your business/ I can not believe how down to earth you are and how smart you are I think you are a great guy and man your videos are wonderful & the way you make them also. Thanks you Joe btw I noticed how clean your shop its spotless is that a requirement for employees to clean up at the end of each day.. looks like it

I didn't realize that so many machinists don't understand trigonometry. I'm going to ask for a raise tomorrow, I use it every day. (A machinist's calculator can calculate trigonometry, or look up "triangle calculator" on the internet and just punch in the numbers)

I have been making some angles with my 12 inch rotary table. Would your method be more accurate? Your presentation was great and I am going to have to make several using your method. For one thing, it doesn't require dragging out the RT. I will use a digital readout on the mill. Thanks for sharing your expertise. I have yet to watch one of your videos without learning something. Thanks!

Hey Joe.... I got around to making more DYI QCTP tool holders and I needed a better way than using a plastic triangle last go. This worked very well, light years ahead of my first go. Important to me is the locking handle being close to the same location with all the holders, this method proved to be much easier to repeat as well as being accurate. Many thanks for this and your other tricks. oh, the trick of drilling 1/8" holes for stops, priceless.

I am curious what is the deal with machinist’s aversion to using calculators but looking up the easily calculated values in reference tables, preferably ones printed before WW I? If this is aimed at new generation of machinists then all of them have smartphones. In less time than it takes to find the reference table book in the shop one can pull the smartphone, start the calculator, (if using iPhone flip it sideways to switch to “scientific mode”), type the angle value, tap TAN button then tap multiply button, enter measured value and tap “=“ Way more efficient than looking things up in a book. Not having to remember all the formulas, all one needs is a single page poster on the wall with them printed or saved on the phone (plenty of them can be found on the internet)

Joe, this is excellent. I'm not about to spring for a surface grinder, but wanted to find some way to use a mill setup to sharpen my 6" jointer blades (if I can find a diamond grinding tool to fit in a mill). I hate the idea of a vise that rotates on X or Y, and wondered if angled "parallels" are available. I think I can now adapt what info I have and give this a shot.

Yes! ... all so easy to understand - opening up so many possibilities - by such simple means: making the gauges, alone is good practice on a wet day! As we say here, Any fool can Steer a machine ( work the controls ) but can they Drive it / get it to sing! Keep up the singing, music to m years !!