angle help please

[cyberakuma]

right this is being a pain in my ass and i\'m hoping the final piece will be worth the effort but what i\'m doing is a conversion for a penitent/bound psyker in an oversized bird cage being dragged by two cherubim to add to my inquisitor\'s retinue for my witch hunters army

the problem i\'m having is the base of the cage itself which is a circle the size of a penny made from miliput but as you can kindof figure i\'ll need to drill holes into where the bars for the cage slot into the base

and basically so it doesn\'t look like a pile of shit i\'ll need to get the bars in equidistance apart there are 8 bars to go in so they need to be positioned in a circular formation on it 45 degrees apart from one another the problem i have is that since the circle is the size of a penny it\'s a pain in the ass getting the points marked up on it accurately ready to drill since most protractors are a lot bigger than a penny and are either solid or just have a central part cut out which still doesn\'t quit allow for marking directly on to something so small

so has anyone got some simple solutions to my problem that will make me feel like a moron?

 

[chivas]

Because the angles will always be the same no matter how big the circle is, work out the measurements on a large easy to draw on circle on a piece of paper (one your protaractor will fit onto)then place the base in the dead centre and where the lines from the paper touch the base thats your marker points.

You could even stick the base on the paper first to make sure it is at the heart of the circle you draw.

 

[cyberakuma]

thanks for that had a friend suggest getting a piece of card as thick the piece i\'m using cut a square out of the card bigger than the circle then cut the circle out in the card and draw straight across from corner to corner and then measure to the middle of each side and then draw across the circle as well and by presto it will be 45 degrees without the use of a protractor at all

i\'ll give both a go though as i\'m probably going to screw it up the first couple of times lol

 

[RuneBrush]

Got access to a printer and a piece of software capable of rotating things? In the past I\'ve used MS Powerpoint to create paper templates. To be honest you could even create a pie chart in a spreadsheet for working out where the holes go.

 

[freakinacage]

cant you just draw a line in pencil to cut the circle in two, then into quarters, then eighths? drill on those points

 

[Shadzar]

Originally posted by freakinacage
cant you just draw a line in pencil to cut the circle in two, then into quarters, then eighths? drill on those points

That is how I would do it too.

 

[QuietiManes]

A couple of simpler suggestions might be to just cut out a paper circle of the same size, fold it in half, open it, fold it in half the other way matching up the folded lines (so you know it is folded at right angles) then open it up and repeat for the \"diagonals\", basically just fold it in half where the other line should go but now you\'ll need to match up both fold lines instead of just the one as before, then repeat for the last line. You don\'t want to just fold it in half again and again without opening it up between, because that will throw off the accuracy, you might as well just eyeball the whole thing if you did that. Now lie it on your base, mark the edges where the folds are on the base, join with a strait edge.

Or just put the base down on a sheet of grid paper. Center it up by eye or if you want to be fancy, put the needle of a compass down on any of the intersections, draw a circle the same size of the base, place the base in this circle, THEN follow the lines on the page through the base with your favourite marker/pencil. You\'ll need to mark the diagonals beforehand as well.

 

[cyberakuma]

Originally posted by QuietiManes
A couple of simpler suggestions might be to just cut out a paper circle of the same size, fold it in half, open it, fold it in half the other way matching up the folded lines (so you know it is folded at right angles) then open it up and repeat for the \"diagonals\", basically just fold it in half where the other line should go but now you\'ll need to match up both fold lines instead of just the one as before, then repeat for the last line. You don\'t want to just fold it in half again and again without opening it up between, because that will throw off the accuracy, you might as well just eyeball the whole thing if you did that. Now lie it on your base, mark the edges where the folds are on the base, join with a strait edge.

Or just put the base down on a sheet of grid paper. Center it up by eye or if you want to be fancy, put the needle of a compass down on any of the intersections, draw a circle the same size of the base, place the base in this circle, THEN follow the lines on the page through the base with your favourite marker/pencil. You\'ll need to mark the diagonals beforehand as well.

your first suggestion is probably going to be the easiest way i think as for just drawing the lines on like a few of you have said wouldn\'t really be that accurate for the poisitioning where i want to drill and with the pipes coming straight up from the base then curving towards the central point accuracy is going to be important otherwise it will just look shit and it will effect later parts of the project too as i\'ll be adding solder wrapped round the bars perpendicular to the base just a bit above it then tacking in small circles into every other grid below this new bar and the base so getting them equal is important or i\'ll be using different sized circle bits in each one and it\'ll lose all uniformity (is that a word?) and look worse and worse the further i progress with it

thanks for all the suggestions though