Bought a new angle indicator.

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  • LCHIEN
    Internet Fact Checker
    • Dec 2002
    • 20914
    • Katy, TX, USA.
    • BT3000 vintage 1999

    Bought a new angle indicator.

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R12DZQ9...roduct_details

    Was only $16+ something.

    I have had a Wixey for tens of years but it has gotten intermittent and just frustrated the heck out of me. Not the battery or the battery contacts, it just sometimes jumps 20 degrees. It ate Batteries even when off but The back was always so hard to open to take it out when not in use.

    The new one is half the cost (even less if you consider inflation), and is lighted and takes AAA batteries instead of the lithium coin cell. More modes. Came in 2 days by Amazon Prime. It's about a quarter of an inch taller and wider and quite a bit lighter. but still has magnets. I think the 1/100th degree digit is totally unnecessary!

    No brand name, very generic.

    It's so nice to have tools that don't frustrate you to use.
    Click image for larger version  Name:	angle indicator.JPG Views:	0 Size:	29.2 KB ID:	837750
    Last edited by LCHIEN; 12-05-2019, 06:10 PM.
    Loring in Katy, TX USA
    If your only tool is a hammer, you tend to treat all problems as if they were nails.
    BT3 FAQ - https://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/di...sked-questions
  • capncarl
    Veteran Member
    • Jan 2007
    • 3564
    • Leesburg Georgia USA
    • SawStop CTS

    #2
    Is the little angle indicator in the top of the screen functional or just an advertisement?

    Comment

    • LCHIEN
      Internet Fact Checker
      • Dec 2002
      • 20914
      • Katy, TX, USA.
      • BT3000 vintage 1999

      #3
      Its functional. For small angles it tells you which way its tilting, if you can't quite tell.
      Loring in Katy, TX USA
      If your only tool is a hammer, you tend to treat all problems as if they were nails.
      BT3 FAQ - https://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/di...sked-questions

      Comment

      • leehljp
        Just me
        • Dec 2002
        • 8429
        • Tunica, MS
        • BT3000/3100

        #4
        Originally posted by LCHIEN
        Its functional. For small angles it tells you which way its tilting, if you can't quite tell.
        For me, the way that they show the angle tilt is unintuitive to me. The bottom line should start at the other end to exactly reflect the actual angle from horizontal. I had to use a digital level a few weeks ago putting up about 150 studs in a building. I was assisting a carpenter who loved his digital level. It was totally counter intuitive to me every time. I had to quit looking at that and watch the old school bubble. I could never tell by the screen if I was a degree off to one side or the other. And I was far more accurate with the bubble.

        If that digital level would let me calibrate it from the direction and end, it would have worked much better.

        BTW, I think I would like the one in that is posted, as I have one that only shows up in tenths of a degree, which is not good enough for segmented bowls. I realize that it won't do miters but some segment cuts can be done with bevels, which the .01 would be GREAT.
        Hank Lee

        Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted!

        Comment

        • LCHIEN
          Internet Fact Checker
          • Dec 2002
          • 20914
          • Katy, TX, USA.
          • BT3000 vintage 1999

          #5
          Don't overthink the angle indicator.

          There's a little up/down arrow to the right. Basically it points the direction you need to raise the right side to move it towards zero. When its perfectly level it shows a straight line and says "0".

          As for the .01 degree, it has what us measurement guys call resolution but no accuracy. In fact the accuracy spec says 0.1 degree.
          I set it on a pretty flat granite top, same place and it reads ,29 degrees, When I move it and set it repeatedly int he same spot I get valuse from ,25 to ,29. So the repeatability is only +/-.2 and I don't know what the actual is. The spec claims 0.1 degree, I assume that means +/- 0.1 degree I really don't have a more accurate reference to verify that over the whole range.
          Last edited by LCHIEN; 12-07-2019, 01:59 AM.
          Loring in Katy, TX USA
          If your only tool is a hammer, you tend to treat all problems as if they were nails.
          BT3 FAQ - https://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/di...sked-questions

          Comment

          • leehljp
            Just me
            • Dec 2002
            • 8429
            • Tunica, MS
            • BT3000/3100

            #6
            Ahh! The little "up/down arrow". That is what I must have missed on the level. The carpenter just kept saying "if it is within .2 of vertical, that is OK." My problem was that at that level of accuracy, I could not tell which way the stud needed to lean or be tapped once it was within .5 or even 1 degree off without having to look at the bubble. I couldn't find a reference point on the digital level for which way to move it.

            (BTW, the carpenter was a stickler for perfection and code, which I liked. (We were building a church). So everything had to be precise.)

            Thanks for posting this as I have an older indicator that uses the button batteries. It seems that I only needed to use it at the point the batteries fail. Same for my calipers! Going back about a little over year ago, I started buying and keeping packs of button batteries on hand. I think I have three packs now. But I still like using AA and AAA as they seem to last longer.
            Last edited by leehljp; 12-07-2019, 08:51 AM.
            Hank Lee

            Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted!

            Comment

            • capncarl
              Veteran Member
              • Jan 2007
              • 3564
              • Leesburg Georgia USA
              • SawStop CTS

              #7
              I like using this kind of angle finder to set the angle of the blades on my table saw and sliding miter saw, no fighting with the teeth on the blade.

              Comment

              • mm1992
                Forum Newbie
                • Nov 2019
                • 37
                • Columbus, OH
                • BT3100

                #8
                Originally posted by leehljp
                It seems that I only needed to use it at the point the batteries fail. Same for my calipers!
                The one thing I've found about these devices is that if I want the batteries to last, I need to remove them when I'm not using it. If I leave my batteries in my calipers, it sure loves to eat them.

                Comment

                • LCHIEN
                  Internet Fact Checker
                  • Dec 2002
                  • 20914
                  • Katy, TX, USA.
                  • BT3000 vintage 1999

                  #9
                  I might point out that in the past I've take a microammeter to the digital calipers and found that the current drawn when off is virtually the same as when on. The only real function of the on-off button seems to be the display.

                  Second guessing the engineers who made the chip used probably in all these things, but they apparently wanted to keep the zero or offset readings so that if the jaws moved it would keep track of them. Anyway that's the effect. Unfortunately while the power consumption is low it still draws enough to run the battery down over a relatively short time compared to the shelf life of the battery.

                  I wouldn't be surprised if the same basic idea was used in these inclinometers and the power is still on. The lithium cells in my old Wixey seemed to be dead every time I sent to use it.
                  Loring in Katy, TX USA
                  If your only tool is a hammer, you tend to treat all problems as if they were nails.
                  BT3 FAQ - https://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/di...sked-questions

                  Comment

                  • capncarl
                    Veteran Member
                    • Jan 2007
                    • 3564
                    • Leesburg Georgia USA
                    • SawStop CTS

                    #10
                    Simular battery situation with my auto darkening welding hood.... I guess the design engineer thought everyone kept their hood in a completely dark cabinet where the factory installed button batteries in a plastic welded up box last 2 years. Leave the hood where it detects fluorescent light and it may be only months before your $150 hood is just a wall decoration. I cut the plastic case apart and tapped into the battery connectors and installed a remote AA battery pack so I could pop out the batteries when not in use. **** a bunch of cheap engineering.

                    Comment

                    • Carlos
                      Veteran Member
                      • Jan 2004
                      • 1893
                      • Phoenix, AZ, USA.

                      #11
                      I have two of these, they are not used often, but so useful when they are. Like Carl, I like it for resetting the TS and SCMS back to zero. I've also used mine to do a front end alignment on the Jeep, as caster and cross-caster angle make a huge difference. I've never had battery issues with them, unlike the calipers which are constantly dead because they use power all the time. My HF welding mask must not use power most of the time either, as it gets a new battery less often than every five years (which makes me realize, I'm old, and it's over 20 years old).

                      Comment

                      • LCHIEN
                        Internet Fact Checker
                        • Dec 2002
                        • 20914
                        • Katy, TX, USA.
                        • BT3000 vintage 1999

                        #12
                        OK, I'm so pissed. Bought this 8 months ago and to replace the WIxey I had for 15+ years.
                        I can't find it. I was going to put it in the same rulers/t-squares drawer where I keep all t he measuring and marking stuff. and that's the first place I looked.
                        But I remember now it came with a nice ballistic nylon fitted case that was a little too thick for that drawer. So I put it somewhere else. Can't remember where that somewhere else is.

                        Steamed!!!!
                        Loring in Katy, TX USA
                        If your only tool is a hammer, you tend to treat all problems as if they were nails.
                        BT3 FAQ - https://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/di...sked-questions

                        Comment

                        • cwsmith
                          Veteran Member
                          • Dec 2005
                          • 2737
                          • NY Southern Tier, USA.
                          • BT3100-1

                          #13
                          Oh the anguish of anyone who uses tools in their lives.

                          Where is it? Where did it go? How is it I don't remember... I know I put it right where I could find it! Honey, you didn't by any chance borrow it did you? (She has no idea what it is, much less a need to use it... but ask her anyway.)

                          The search is endless, and is terminated only because there might just be things that you forgot you even had. I think that the first day Man picked up a stone or a stick to use it as a tool, he spent the second day wondering where he left it. I know that decades I've been a tool owner, there has always been that question... "Where did I put that?" As a result, I own a half-dozen plus tape measure, countless screwdrivers, pliers, and even I can't guess at where my pens, pencils, and other daily-use paraphernalia goes to.

                          With me, I often find the object a day or two (sometime even an hour or two) after I stop looking. Then of course there's the buy-another-one remedy, which often turns up the lost one, soon there after; and, of course there is the remote possibility that the missing item just got transported to a different reality, universe, or time dimension (something to do with quantum physics, alien abduction, or whatever. Life is a wonderment and full of mysteries!

                          Or maybe by the time you read this, you have found it once again,

                          CWS
                          Think it Through Before You Do!

                          Comment

                          • LCHIEN
                            Internet Fact Checker
                            • Dec 2002
                            • 20914
                            • Katy, TX, USA.
                            • BT3000 vintage 1999

                            #14
                            The thing is, the tool was in the same place for 15-20 years. Moved it because the new one didn't fit, but I can't think/recall whatever logic I used to pick a different drawer (except 1/2" or more deeper). My brain says it must be in the drawer it was in for so long.
                            Loring in Katy, TX USA
                            If your only tool is a hammer, you tend to treat all problems as if they were nails.
                            BT3 FAQ - https://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/di...sked-questions

                            Comment

                            • Carlos
                              Veteran Member
                              • Jan 2004
                              • 1893
                              • Phoenix, AZ, USA.

                              #15
                              My angle finders stay out where I can see them. Not that I use them a LOT, but I know if they are visible I'll be more likely to use them. One is by the TS so that I don't get lazy, and it makes me remember to check for perfection every time I move the blade.

                              Comment

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