This device is one of the little boxes available that stick to a surface and give you a digital angle readout.
- I found it for , shipped, instead of the 40+ bucks the rest seem to go for.
- it appeared to be the best for several reasons: a. uses one 9 volt battery which is available *everywhere,* instead of a bunch of hearing-aid batts which are difficult to find and costly. b. it's aluminum, not plastic c. they make the BealeBox with gets great reviews. d. has best/most features..... which I'll get into.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.....
The GOOD: Works perfectly-- dead-on accurate (accurate enough for woodworking). Has magnets on 3 sides (some others only have them on 2). Readout flips over when device is upside-down. As mentioned earlier, uses a 9volt battery, instead of hard-to-find pill batteries. Has a "Hold" feature on the readout... use your imagination.
It *really* speeds up your work. Forget lining up a square with the blade and looking between the blade and square for light, and making sure you're not on the teeth.... just plop it down, hit zero, plop it on the blade, crank the blade until you see the angle you want, done. The caveat here is that your blade is true/flat. But yeah, time for a new blade it that's not the case, right?
The BAD: Out of the box, one side had an ever so slight crown in the center, which allowed it to rock a fuzz, when placed on that side. I can't remember if it was enough to affect the accuracy, but it was enough for a sheet of paper. This is supposed to be a precision instrument. If you had an engineering square that rocked, not matter how little, that would mean there was a flaw.
The UGLY: I emailed iGaging, told them about the problem, and this was their reply...
----------------------------------------------------------------- "It is my first time hearing this problem and I am very sorry. I think it is due to the chrome process of the body. Here are two things you can do:
- Use a #250 or #300 sand paper to sand it down a little.
- You can exchange it with your seller. Once again, sorry for any problem we may cost you."
----------------------------------------------------------------- Imagine if this was Lee Valley and one of the tools they make. They would've had another one in the mail, before sending an email apology.
The restored GOOD: So anyway, I tried the sanding thing and it wasn't getting there. I took the back cover off and pushed the crowned side in just a tad (aluminum) at it's center to bend the bow in. That worked perfectly and it kept its accuracy.