Is your digital angle gauge accurate?

[Bill Huber]

I had been cutting some angles on the table saw and when I put the blade back to 90° with the Wixey digital gauge and made a test cut I noticed is was not square when I checked it with my Starrett square. I made an adjustment to the blade and made a test cut with a 2 1/2" wide board on its edge and they fit perfect after flipping the cut off 180°.

I then checked it again with the Starrett square and it showed it square, so that means the Wixey must be off a little, but how much.

I put the Wixey back on the saw and it read 89.8°, but how can I really check it.

I checked the Starrett with the line and then flipped it over and check it to the line and I could see no difference. I check the Starrett with my Woodpecker square and they both checked out square.

So I clamped the Starrett in my vise and set the Wixey on it and zeroed it out then rotated it to the edge of the blade and it read 89.8°. I did this test 3 times, each time I took the Starrett out and remounted it, zeroed the Wixey and every time it came out 89.8°.

So I guess the bottom line is if you have any question about your digital angle gauge this could be a way to check it. I know now that the Wixey is off but .2° and I can adjust for that any time I use it.

[George Bokros]

Has the Wixey angle gauge been correct before against the Starrett square?

George

[Bill Huber]

Has the Wixey angle gauge been correct before against the Starrett square?

George

I don't know, I have never checked it, I would think not but just don't know.

[dan sherman]

All the litte angle gauges have a resolusion of +-0.1 degrees, so you can never get more accurate than that. For reference 0.1 degrees is 0.0209" over a foot. A 12" Starrett square has a tolerance of 0.002" over a foot. The digital will get you close, but if you need to be accurate break out the square.

[Alan Bienlein]

I just put mine on the table saw top and hit calibrate so it shows all zero's. I then put it on the blade and it says 90.0 degrees. I even used mine to check for other angles and not had a problem. Are your batteries getting weak? Do you calibrate it each time you use it against the surface your measuring the angle from?

[Bill Huber]

All the litte angle gauges have a resolusion of +-0.1 degrees, so you can never get more accurate than that. For reference 0.1 degrees is 0.0209" over a foot. A 12" Starrett square has a tolerance of 0.002" over a foot. The digital will get you close, but if you need to be accurate break out the square.

I understand that and I proved it with my test but if I need to set the blade at say 22.5° I can't do that with the Starrett and I have to use the digital angle gauge. So now I know that it is off when I set it at 22.3, the blade is at 22.5, that is if I rotate the gauge counter clockwise.

[Bill Huber]

I just put mine on the table saw top and hit calibrate so it shows all zero's. I then put it on the blade and it says 90.0 degrees. I even used mine to check for other angles and not had a problem. Are your batteries getting weak? Do you calibrate it each time you use it against the surface your measuring the angle from?

Yes I calibrate it every time I use it, just because the gauge has 90° on it does not mean that it is 90°.

So with my gauge when I set it on the saw and calibrate it to zero and then put it on the blade and set it to 90° the blade will be off .2°
I know that .2° is not very much but it is still off and not 90°, but knowing that I can always set it to 89.8 and I know it will be 90°.

[Steven J Corpstein]

Yes I calibrate it every time I use it, just because the gauge has 90° on it does not mean that it is 90°.

So with my gauge when I set it on the saw and calibrate it to zero and then put it on the blade and set it to 90° the blade will be off .2°
I know that .2° is not very much but it is still off and not 90°, but knowing that I can always set it to 89.8 and I know it will be 90°.

I have never had very accurate results with the Wixey stuff, so I switched to a Tilt Box. Same thing with Wixey table saw DRO, I switched to a Proscale by Accurate Technology. Wixey's seem to be more about the wow factor that it is digital than the accuracy you're seeking.

[Steve Baumgartner]

I'm surprised that it seems your unit does not zero reliably, but not surprised at erroneous readings. My first Wixey broke and out of curiosity I took it apart. There is a little pendulum in there that senses "up". The tiniest amount of friction could make it hang up and read a little bit off true. Also if face of the box isn't pointed horizontally, that will change the reading (correctly, though).

I now view these as sort of quick-n-dirty for those situations where absolute precision isn't needed. For instance, on a piece an inch or two across, you are rarely going to notice the error and will probably clamp it out anyway. We are working with wood, after all!

Steve

[dan sherman]

I understand that and I proved it with my test but if I need to set the blade at say 22.5° I can't do that with the Starrett and I have to use the digital angle gauge. So now I know that it is off when I set it at 22.3, the blade is at 22.5, that is if I rotate the gauge counter clockwise.

it doesn't work that way though, because the tool is not guaranteed to be off the exact same amount thought it's entire range. Thus even though you are making a 0.2 degree correction, you're not guaranteed to actually be at 22.5. To be fair a lot of segmented turners angle block aren't much better than 0.1 degrees either. if you want to be dead nuts for arbitrary angles you need to use something like machinist angle blocks.

[Keith Hankins]

I'm on my second wixley. First one started flashing bars one day and even with a bat replacement did not fix. Had it for a long time so did not complain and bought a second one. I always calabrate to zero and I found that if your blade depending on it's flatness can fudge it. I had a project with 22.5 and found that if I set the angle with it attached at diff placement verticle on the blade, I got a slight variance of +- .1 degree. To solve it I placed consistently at the top with the blade set to the final height for cut. I test against a known 45. I have a wood pecker precision triangle to the 45 was an easy and if that's reading right then I assumed it was good. This worked The trick was only reading the degree with the blade set to the right cutting height. Now that was for my old griz 1023. That could have been related to other issues. My blade was a Forrest WWII

[Bill Huber]

it doesn't work that way though, because the tool is not guaranteed to be off the exact same amount thought it's entire range. Thus even though you are making a 0.2 degree correction, you're not guaranteed to actually be at 22.5. To be fair a lot of segmented turners angle block aren't much better than 0.1 degrees either. if you want to be dead nuts for arbitrary angles you need to use something like machinist angle blocks.

That is true, I could see that it may not be off the same for the entire range, guess that is something I will have to think about.

[Dennis Ford]

I rarely use mine anymore, it is not more accurate than the angles marked on my saw and the battery does not last all that long either.

[CPeter James]

I just went and checked my Igaging Angle Cube against a good engineer's square and it was dead on. It has a 9 volt battery and auto off so the battery last's a long time.

CPeter

[william watts]

I just went and checked my Igaging Angle Cube against a good engineer's square and it was dead on. It has a 9 volt battery and auto off so the battery last's a long time

As Dan said there is a .1 degree resolution. When checked against a 90 degree standard it will read 90. It will also read 90 at 89.9 and 90.1 degrees. That's if your gauge meets its specs. Mount your gauge on your saw blade and note reading then turn the angle wheel on your saw. You will see the blade visibly change angle, but the reading on the gauge stays the same. That's the way my Igaging meter works, however; the resoulation seems to me more than .1 degree may be something wrong.

Somewhere on the web I saw a angle gauge that had a small magnetic pendulum that read against an analog scale. Looked like it would be very accurate and pricey.