Thanks for the ideas and support, much appreciated.

I’m frequently asked if I can do two types of statue milling. 1: where a client wants a copy of a sculpture, If I can do these as a continuous 360 helical mill I will do but often that strategy can’t get all the detail so that why i’mcurrently learning 2: index milling to get better 4 sided definition and detail. Or to put it another way have more control over the access to difficult areas. So yes I as I don’t need speed I just need holding torque I could do with a reduction to help the motor pulley side but also a brake so yes the bicycle or moped hydraulic brake might be fine.

Thinking extra laterally here for a moment as a short term solution what I could do is mill a few 300mm wooden disks with degree marking added or included as holes for pegs and just use separate files to orientate the stock to the angle I want and lock it off with a g-clamp. I know I know not very high tech but if all I have to do is remember to remove and reclamp the g-clamp to hold it steady i’d go for that.