Faith in Wixley Digital Angle Gauge??

[tody Brock]

I got the above mentioned gauge for Christmas and set it on my table saw and then zeroed it out, then placed it upon my blade. With the blade set in the 90* position to the table the angle gauge said it was about .5* off. I did the same on my miter saw and got pretty much the same results, thinking it was like .3* off. My cuts on both saws seem to be right, I haven't run into any alignment problems, but I want to get them perfect. Would you put 100% faith in the angle gauge, if not how would you check for less than .5*

[Bruce Page]

Set your blade dead nuts 90º with a quality square and see if the digital gauge agrees.

[Douglas Brummett]

Test cuts and good inspection equipment are about the only good way to verify that the digital is working. I have a steel 1-2-3 block that I tested my wixey on. It was dead on, as it should be with a digital gauge on a precision machined block. I am a fan of having "gold standard" tools in the shop, stuff that I know is dead-on accurate. Then when times like this come along I can evaluate what is actually going on with a fairly high level of confidence.

If you have an accurate square laying around you can see what numbers your wixey gives against it's known angles ;)

[Lee Schierer]

You'll need a 3' long (or longer) straight edge and two pieces of straight wood about 2' long by about 2" wide by 3/4 thick. Check the two pieces with your straightedge to be sure they are straight. Raise the blade to full height. Then cross cut the end of the first board that is just slightly shorter than the height of your blade (2" dimension is vertical). Cut the second board the same way. Place the sawn ends of the two pieces together and see if the result is straight with your straight edge. If you see a gap between the straight edge and the boards where the two cut ends meet you saw is off. If there is no gap the saw is at 90 degrees.

If your boards were 24" long and the vertical cut is off by .5 degrees the ends should be about .2" higher than the center of the boards when the two cut ends are placed together.

Personally I would trust the Wixey until I proved it wrong.

[Myk Rian]

I've checked my Wixey, and trust it.
Set the blade at 90deg. Cut a board in half. Flip one half over and put the cuts together. If the edges are flush together, you're good to go.

[john bateman]

I've checked my Wixey, and trust it.
Set the blade at 90deg. Cut a board in half. Flip one half over and put the cuts together. If the edges are flush together, you're good to go.

I used a machinist square to check my blade, and my fence, for 90 degrees to the table. I used the Wixey, and it read 90.0 on both the the blade and fence.

But if I rip-cut a piece of 3/4" thick mdf, then turn it around so that the cut edge is against the fence, it is not exactly parallel to the fence (top to bottom)

The error must be very tiny...on the order of a tenth or two of a degree.

[Myk Rian]

But if I rip-cut a piece of 3/4" thick mdf, then turn it around so that the cut edge is against the fence, it is not exactly parallel to the fence (top to bottom)
I've noticed that if the insert isn't flush.

[Lee Schierer]

I used a machinist square to check my blade, and my fence, for 90 degrees to the table. I used the Wixey, and it read 90.0 on both the the blade and fence.

But if I rip-cut a piece of 3/4" thick mdf, then turn it around so that the cut edge is against the fence, it is not exactly parallel to the fence (top to bottom)

The error must be very tiny...on the order of a tenth or two of a degree.
I would check the alignment of the blade to the miter gauge slot and the fence to the miter gauge slot with a dial indicator. If the wood is not being fed straight through the blade, the result would be a slightly curved cut face which would appear as a slight angle.

[Jesse Cloud]

OK, sorry, but I'm about to get on the soapbox.
But first, a have a Wixey, use it all the time, and have confidence in it - as long as your movement stays in the same plane it was in when you zeroed it.

OK, begin soapbox. Just because something is digital or something is written out with lots of digits to the right of the decimal place doesn't mean squat. If the underlying mechanism that takes the measurement is flawed, the fancy displace isn't going to make it any better.

There are a few different ways to look at something..

1. Reliability - if you measure the same thing twice with the same device you get the same result - necessary for a good measurement but not sufficient - you can get the same incorrect measurement time after time.

2. Precision - the 'fineness' or granularity of the measurement, e.g., inch, half, quarter, hundred and twenty eighth, etc. Precision needs to be appropriate for the task at hand. Some of the discussion above hinted at an issue - sure your measurement can be dead on 90 degrees, but if your technique is off or the miter gauge is off, yadda yadda....the outcome isn't gonna be that precise anyhow.

3. Accuracy - the measurement really is what is says it is, low precision accuracy is easy, higher precision is harder.

The point is that you need all three. All the digital display does is help with number 2.

Sorry, off the soapbox now. And yes, the Wixey is one cool tool!!

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

put it on the other side of the blade and see if it's -.5

[Jim Kountz]

I trust mine well enough for my woodworking operations. I recently did a post sleeve out of oak. It was 8' long made from 1x6. I set my blade to 45 using the wixey and mitered all the pieces. The fit was perfect all along all 4 joints. Good enough for me to trust it!!

[Doug Shepard]

What was the temp in the shop? In my unheated garage shop I've noticed a tendency for pretty much anything with a digital readout to occasionally get cantankerous and not want to work all that well until the space heater gets going. I have the same problem with the owner of said equipment.

[Brian Brown]

I love my Wixey, and it is more accurate than my skills thus far. As for a test, stand Wixey upright on a flat board. Mark it's position with a pencil. Zero it out, roll it 90* to the right, and take a reading. Then roll it 180* left, and take a reading. It is important that you place Wixey as close as possible to the same place on your board as it was when it was zeroed (the reason for the pencil marks). One direction should read 90.0* the other -90.0*. If this test doesn't give you exactly 90.0* and -90.0* you need a replacement. Then do the cut test described in other replies above to check accuracy.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Precision? Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with a piece of chalk, and then cut it with an axe. Precision work as it was measured to the thousandth. Try setting blade with square, then check with Wixey, and then with dial indicator jig that checks both sides of the blade to insure readings are the same. If readings are the same, then blade is square. DI jig was in ShopNotes # 70

[Steve Clardy]

Wixey user here.

Angle gauge
Table saw fence gauge

Now have a gauge for my shapers. New product about 3 weeks old.
Haven't got those finished up installing yet.

[Clifford Mescher]

Problem with checking with wixey is that it has only 2" for reference. Best scenario is to have steel bar about 2 feet long that has parallel faces and is straight. Lay edge of bar in front of blade and the other end where you lay your wood. Put wixey near blade on bar. Zero wixey and then take off of bar and onto blade. That should give better reading. Clifford.

[Brandon Shew]

From what I gather by my non-scientific tests, the Wixey seems to be pretty accurate.

Mine seems to burn through batteries though. I may have used it 6-8 times and had to replace the battery. I'm wondering if the auto shutoff really works...

[Steve Clardy]

I'm on my second battery. Mine is around a year old I guess

[Dave Lehnert]

From what I gather by my non-scientific tests, the Wixey seems to be pretty accurate.

Mine seems to burn through batteries though. I may have used it 6-8 times and had to replace the battery. I'm wondering if the auto shutoff really works...
There have been reports of this being a problem. Give Wixy a call. Reports have said they will replace it for you.
A battery should last about 6 months. The auto off turns off the display only. The battery will have a constant drain on it to maintain the calibration of the unit.

[Myk Rian]

I turn mine off every time. Battery has lasted almost a year now.

[Lee Schierer]

From what I gather by my non-scientific tests, the Wixey seems to be pretty accurate.

Mine seems to burn through batteries though. I may have used it 6-8 times and had to replace the battery. I'm wondering if the auto shutoff really works...

One of the reasons I purchased the Beall unit was the 9 volt battery it uses. Since mine is new, I have no idea what the battery life will be.

[glenn bradley]

I'm with Steve. I use about one battery per year in the Wixey but, there are varying qualities of batteries, don't go cheap. I haven't changed the Beall yet and it's been about a year. They both seem fine but the Beall is more granular; it also takes longer to stabilize but that makes sense.

I trust them both and am glad to have them. If I am doing something where a single hundredth of a degree is going to be a problem, I am porobably NOT using either of these handy little boxes ;-)

[Bruce Wrenn]

Dollar Tree often has a card of three 2032 lithium batteries for a buck. At that price buy several. But I think I remember that Wixey replaced some of the earlier units for free.