<![CDATA[Wade'O Design - Tool Blog]]>Sat, 10 Jan 2026 23:36:03 -0500Weebly<![CDATA[Leitz Wetzlar Toolmakers Microscope WM]]>Fri, 27 Jun 2025 10:06:01 GMThttps://www.wadeodesign.com/tool-blog/leitz-wetzlar-toolmakers-microscopeI'll add some details later on this new tool.  For now just a picture for Stefan :)
Picture
]]><![CDATA[Angle Aide - Sine Bar attachment for Bridgeport vise]]>Sat, 25 Feb 2017 14:38:31 GMThttps://www.wadeodesign.com/tool-blog/angle-aide-sine-bar-attachment-for-bridgeport-viseOne of my favorite things to bid on at auction is a tool box listed as "full" but not cataloged.  It's great fun to get the box home and find out what's inside; sometimes it's full of useful items to add to the shop while others it's a total bust and waste of money.  My last box reveled an interesting tool made by Enfield Machine Tool Co. called an Angle Aide.  The included document list the tool description as "Angle Aide is a new device that allows accurate and fast setup in a Bridgeport #2 vise of any angle desired".  No date exists on the documentation but I was able to find a trademark for this item which was issues in 1991.  It was immediately obvious that the tool was sine bar related as one of the parts has the customary rollers but I must admit that without paperwork I might not have been able to figure out the exact use and likely would have missed the application in a vise.  Now the tool is basically a sine bar device which can be mounted into a Bridgeport #2 vice by replacing the existing vise jaw - the best explanation is to simply post some photos.
Although I don't own a Bridgeport vise, as you can see in the photos, I can still simply place the tool into my Kurt vise and use it without bolting in.  I've considered to machine new interfaces specific for the Kurt but the pattern would then overlap the existing holes and likely ruin the aesthetics of this quality tool.  Below I've placed some links to the documentation for this tool - hope someone finds it useful.
​Angle Aide Description & Instructions
​Angle Aide "Quick Reference Chart"

​Now a note on sine bars.  The mystery box which this tool was hiding in also included a couple small standard sine bars.  They were a great addition to the shop but with my inexperience I simply associated these bars as inspection use and until recently was unaware of the diversity of these tools.  This is thanks to a YouTube video from Tom Lipton at "Ox Tools" fame.  The video, along with being an inspiration for starting this blog section on my site, is a must see regarding Sine Bar use.  Enjoy -> Link to Tom's Video
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