Belt sander angle gauges - revised (configurable in OpenSCAD)

thingiverse

I use a 1" x 30" belt sander to grind high-speed steel lathe tools. These tools need to be ground to various angles to work properly, although the angles don't have to be too precise - "close enough" is good enough. I don't want to put my precision measuring tools anywhere near grinding belts, so I designed these gauges to allow me to set the angle of the tool's table quickly and easily. They are accurate enough for my needs (they are actually quite accurate). The original design worked very well, especially if you wanted different-coloured raised text, but finding a convenient way to store them wasn't so easy. This version has a hole in one corner so that the gauges can be strung together, and the text is recessed to allow them to lie snugly against each other. My collection now hangs on a hook on my tool-board. They could also be held together loosely with a bolt, washers and a locking nut - the recessed text helps here as well. Note that the default angle between the belt and the table is 90 degrees - the angles shown on these gauges are relative to that. For example, if I want to grind a 3 degree angle on a piece of tool steel, I use the "3" gauge to set the angle between the belt and table at 93 degrees. This results in a 3 degree slope on the square-section tool steel - hopefully the picture explains it! I have included STL files for 5 different angles, but any angle can be selected by making a simple change in the OpenSCAD code and recompiling it. However, larger angles will result in the right-hand side being clipped to prevent it getting too long.