Newbie question: holding 5.5" square stock on a 45 degree angle

[bfd]

you asked what I would do so here it is; having a face mill with carbides set at 45 degrees I would lay the stock flat in the vice. set a stop ( so i can rotate the part 4 times. this would make all angles the same depth. a 45 degree cutter can be made out of a fly cutter and bit. bill

 

[TORQUIN]

I'd go the angle cutter route, and look on Ebay for one, either carbide or HSS. You can find that stuff used, but in good shape, cheap there. Otherwise Shars may have a carbide indexable cutter with a 45 profile.

Chris

 

[Downunder Bob]

A couple of things to consider. As has been said the head on the bridgeport is designed to moved, the problem is everytime you move it, you then have to set it back up square again. A lot depends on how often you're likely to want to move it, and how fussy you are about setting it up square again.

If you're likely to want to move it often and are not so worried about setting it back up square afterwards, then I'd go for moving the head.

If on the other hand if you're not likely to want to move it often and you are particularly concerned about having set up square, then I'd look at some of the other option.
For my money I'd look at getting a 45 deg cutter likely to get a fair bit of use anyway. other angles might want other solutions. Other common angles like 45, 30 60, even 27.5 you can probably get ready made cutters.

Another thought if you intend to make a lot of these, how about making a purpose built jig to hold the part at the right angle and go for it.

 

[dlane]

I’ll bet he got it figured out by now but One of these makes it easy.

 

[PrettyHateMachining]

Needless to say, I did work it out in the end. I just tilted the head, it turns out it's really easy, I have no idea what I was afraid of.

All pics here:

https://imgur.com/a/qiym4wH

Ended up at 135lbs!

Dope