On Mon, 15 Nov 2010 22:31:58 -0800, "anorton"
wrote:


The half-angle = arctan(0.5*(0.75 - 0.63) / 1.0) = 3.43 deg. However, I
suspect your measurements may not be accurate. Common tapers for tie rods
are 1.2"/foot or 1.5"/foot. Your measurements give 1.44"/foot. If your
bottom diameter were actually .625" that would be a 1.5"/ft taper or 3.58
deg. half angle.

You are right, I checked my measurements again a bit closer to
the bottom edge and also looked at the manufacturers specs, which were
0.625.

Thank you for your assistance, I have to try to re-learn trig
for my metalworking, as I did not use it at work. I have no problem
with algebra as it was used in calculating formulae and proportions of
ingredients for quality control, which was my job. I would probably
take a couple of days to get up to speed with calculations as I
retired just over 15 years ago and, of course, my employer had to put
on 2 people to do my job and they were still slower than I was.

Thanks,

Alan