Thanks for the complement on the machine David.
Yes, your right it wasn’t anything to do with the money, but the enjoyment of making it and producing a good stone from it. It would have been a lot cheaper to have bought a good second hand one.
The protractors are not light and have to come off, but you don’t need them once setup. You rest the stone on the lap and adjust the mast height till you have the required angle. Set the dial gauge and now that position on the gauge is that angle.
I’ll have a think about righting an article on building the machine. I’ve got a full set of dimensioned CAD drawings for every component and don’t mind giving them to anyone who wants to have a go.
It also has a very accurate means of recording the position of every facet.