Digital Sliding T-Bevel

[Swingman]

[Robatoy]

that will be one helluva handy go-to tool. Pocket size to boot.

[steamer]

--Wowzers that's got a gazillion uses; thanks for posting!

[Bill]

It can only be as accurate as the sensor at the sliding "arm" (sorry, I don't know the appropriate term). I momentarily considered this as a substitute for a magnetic level+bevel, but what I said above makes me hesitate. Perhaps someone can vouch for the technology being used? The issue is mainly academic for me, but it's not uninteresting.

[Bill]

Sorry to reply to my own post: What is given up in accuracy besides the "arm" is loose enough to slide? Until I here more, it's going to say in my "gimmick" category. : )

[tiredofspam]

Yea I looked at that yesterday, and the thing that hit me was the accuracy of +-.3 degrees, but a resolution of .05 degrees. Seems odd that the accuracy is so much further off than the resolution. What good is .05 resolution if you can only have .3 accuracy. If the accuracy were .1 I would understand.

At that point I questioned it's legitimacy.

I am interested but after having lost my job yesterday, I'll wait for your opinions.

[Steve Turner]

go telling everybody else and their mother about stuff like this.

[Swingman]

I can see occasions where it would be real handy, like when setting a miter saw for non-square corners, among other things, but, even though I really don't have that much need, the _price_ is what makes it attractive.

AAMOF, the thing I like the best is the knob doesn't get in the way of laying it flat for measuring ... just that feature in combination with the digital read-out in a t-bevel is worth the twenty bucks when you absolutely need it.

[Swingman]

As always, that depends entirely upon your use of the "gimmick" (and probably your imagination).

With a few of the things where I can envision its usefulness, like some machine setup situations, the fact that you can't set the machine to a greater accuracy than the accuracy of the instrument itself makes it a moot point.

[Robatoy]

As per discussion elsewhere in this thread, it could be construed as a bit gimmicky, but having said that, many things with digital read-out are gimmicky. Like the days of yore, FM Radio tuners with digital read- outs were "so much more accurate" than their sliding dial counterparts!! The read-out had absolutely nothing to do with the tuning itself, as is the case with so many measuring tools. I bought a measuring tape with a digital read-out (in a fit of spontaneity) a Starrett no less, and found myself reading the tape instead of the digital read-out. I tossed the damned thing when I wanted to replace the battery and discovered it was a proprietary $20.00 POS. (They, of course, changed to another battery shortly thereafter.) IMHO, 'digital' doesn't automatically mean 'better'.

But I digress.

(back to the fishing lure analogy... who/what are those lures designed to catch?)

[Steve Turner]

[John Grossbohlin]

Seems to me that if the blade is more accurate than the read-out just use the blade... I've got no problem laying my sliding bevel up against the saw plate on my CMS and TS, and against the miter gauges on the TS, BS, and router table... and there are no batteries to go dead or crystals/lenses to break!

John

[tiredofspam]

Well, I guess then its not a bad deal for you. I have kind of liked the idea of:

have used various protractors to set my angle. And after just revisiting the page, at almost twice the price, I guess

20 is not so bad a risk.

[Robatoy]

Always a legitimate question: what sortakinda batteries does this thing consume and what does one have to pay for those?

[Swingman]

I was talking about uses that were more along the line of using it to measure the angle of the corner of room (notoriously un-square), dividing by two, and setting your miter saw to the results ... anything that can get you into the ballpark quicker, at $20, will pay for itself pretty quickly.

[John Grossbohlin]

I guess I'm so used to using a protractor and sliding bevel for measuring, and a shooting board for tweaking joints, that I don't even think about dealing with non-square corners as a problem... It goes along with the realization I had while working at Colonial Williamsburg that pretty much the whole man-made world was built without electricity. ;~)

John

[Swingman]

Absolutely nothing wrong with that ... some of us just find it makes us more competitive to use electricity when feeding the family with the proceeds.

:)

[John Grossbohlin]

Yup... There are absolutely times when electricity makes a lot of sense... and other times when meat powered tools make sense... Developing skill with both types of power lets you solve problems and get things done!

[Larry W]

[Bill]

I'm all in favor a sliding t-bevel. I have found "creative" uses for mine (like measuring the squareness of the inside of a box". My curosity was about the added value of the digital guage. My dad, may he rest in peace, would likely have said "It looks like another gimmick!" : )