Digital angle gauge

David Johnson

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Carthage,Mo
Thanks for the birthday card just what I was looking for at my age.
I make end grain cutting boards and up to now have just used 90 degree and 4 degree angles which are easy enough to set. I am now looking at doing other angles which I need to set weird angles. Question is the Wixey Angle Gauge worth the effort to purchase and is it accurate? The one I'm looking at is in the Rockler catalog for 39.99. Thanks for your input.
David
 
I have the Beall Tilt Box, which is essentially the same type of device with a few extra features. Although I've not used it much, it does seem to be nice and accurate. (I just haven't had much need for angles other than 90 and 45 degrees, and I prefer to use drafting triangles for setting those angles up.)

Here's a comparison review between the Wixey and the Beall:

http://www.routerforums.com/tool-reviews/8292-beall-tilt-box-versus-wixey-angle-gauge.html
 
I have had one for several years and have found it to be very accurate, well according to my Starrett combo square which is the only thing I have to check its' accuracy with. The only problem I have with it is I don't have reason to use it a lot and sometimes, like just the other day, when I reached for it the battery was dead. Coarse every time I have been to town lately I forget to get one or the one time I went to a battery store to get one I forgot the number.

By the way, they are several dollars cheaper for Amazon and I sure if you searched a little you would find them cheaper at other places.
 
I too have the Beall Tilt Box, and find it very accurate as well, I got it about four years ago and use it often, I also like the fact that it takes a 9V battery ,so no need to search for replacements. I use it on the drill press as well as the table saw, and Joiner.
 
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I'll opine that, for a tool of this type, accuracy doesn't matter. Repeatability does! I have a Wixey box and love it. However, it is not perfectly repeatable. Sometimes, it's only repeatable to .1 degrees. Meaning, I have set my blade to 45, cut some stuff. Changed the blade settings, cut other stuff, then re-set the blade to 45, cut more stuff, and the miters don't come together PERFECTLY. The blade is .1 off from the last time. Miter still looks great, but it's not 100% perfect. I have this issue maybe 50% of the time.

For woodworking, the Wixey is perfectly capable, low cost (but not cheap! Metal construction, I've dropped mine a number of times), fast, and easy to use. I use it with my table, miter, and circ saws. I never ever use the built in angle gauge on my TS3650 anymore.

Wouldn't cut it for precision metalworking, though.
 
Doing some looking around, the Wixey WR300 uses a CR2032 battery, very common and only less than $1.50 each. It is the same battery my digital caliper uses, so I guess I should keep a couple on hand. I also see the Wixey now has a WR365 model that has a read out screen that you can set at different angles to make it easier to read, it uses 2 AAA batteries, that's a good thing, I always have those around and it has the level option like the Beall. By the way both of these are rated the same at +-.1 accuracy.

Looks to me like either the Beall or the Wixey is good. The advantage to the Wixey is it is a little cheaper.
 
I have had the Wixey (which was great) and the Beall which has an extra decimal position. This lets the Beall tell you if you are at 49.58 degrees versus 49.6 degrees if that is important to your use. When the Wixey died I bought another Beall and now have one of the old and one of the newer versions. The newer version has magnets on an additional side (3 sides instead of 2) and is of a smaller form factor. Still not as compact as the Wixey but heavier in weight and they both use a standard 9 volt battery.
 
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