Skil Digital Angle Finder: huge mistake!

Which gives you the left piece of crown molding protruding about an inch past the right, no?

Reply to
-MIKE-
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I stood on the ceiling for a while, but blacked out from the blood rushing to my head. :-)

Reply to
-MIKE-

It *is* thinking for you...it is telling you where to set the gauge to get the angle you want.

Reply to
dadiOH

OK, suppose it did. Suppose you have a 150 degree corner and you want to cut miters for it. The device tells you to set up a 75 degree cut. How do you propose setting that up?

Reply to
dadiOH

But only half the time.

Reply to
Doug Miller

That's easy: set the miter gauge at (90 - 75) = 15.

Reply to
Doug Miller

The wrong angle. In the case of my original example, I would have a 20 degree gap in my joint.

Reply to
-MIKE-

Since the same companies make miter saws, I would assume they know the limits of the miter adjustments on those saws and could program the chip to readout different options. Since most SCM's don't go much beyond 135 degrees, another push of the miter button could show that other angle. My point is that it should default to account for the rule and not the exception.

Product development meeting. "Gee our saw doesn't slide over to nearly 180 degrees, maybe we should account for that in the product we are selling as an accessory to the saw."

Reply to
-MIKE-

You know what his reply is, now. "See, you had to do the math, anyway."

Like I said, the device should default to the rule, not the exception.

Reply to
-MIKE-

Inclusive angle? Or exclusive?

Pardon my asking. Can't you just dimension the angle in SketchUp?

Reply to
MikeWhy

Oh, I agree entirely. Like I said earlier, it's worse than useless, because using it is more effort than not using it. So why bother?

Reply to
Doug Miller

pfft!

"using it is more effort than not using it"

That's funny.

Reply to
-MIKE-

The "miter angle" is the complement of 1/2 the included angle. For example, the "miter angle" to join two boards end to end in a straight line (180 included angle) is zero, a square cut: 90 - 1/2 (180) = 0

If the two walls make an angle of 89 degrees to each other, the miter angle is 90 - 1/2 (89) = 90 - 44.5 = 45.5

if the two walls make an angle of 91 degrees to each other, the miter angle is 90 - 1/2 (91) = 90 - 45.5 = 44.5.

if the two walls make an angle of 100 degrees to each other, the miter angle is 90 - 1/2 (100) = 90 - 50 = 40.

Looks to me like the device is working fine for obtuse angles and is giving the complement of the miter angle for acute angles.

Tom Veatch Wichita, KS USA

Reply to
Tom Veatch

Only if you use the cutoff instead of the workpiece.

You do have to remember that with acute angles, the cutoff is on one side of the blade and with obtuse angles the cutoff is on the opposite side of the blade. Which is which depends on whether you use a left or right miter setting.

Tom Veatch Wichita, KS USA

Reply to
Tom Veatch

Curious where you got that definition. I would use a definition of "half the included angle", and it looks like Taunton agrees with me:

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that page: "If the frame members intersect at 120°, the miter angle would be 60°."

Of course, the setting on the saw is the complement of that.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Friesen

Ok Tom, you sound more informed on this matter than the senior tech support guy at Skil/Bosch. I'm beginning to understand more on the subject. I've done this for years, but have usually marked my angles, instead of measuring them.

In your first example, however, if I have corner and I cut two pieces with 45.5 degree angles on them, I'll have a corner at 91 degrees, no?

Reply to
-MIKE-

Ok, I'm beginning to picture this, now.

I still say they should program the chip so you have a choice of what angle you want displayed, kept side, cutoff side, left setting, right setting, whatever.

Like dadiOH wrote, if you have a 150 degree corner, you can't set the miter saw to 75 degrees, so why would they display that?

Reply to
-MIKE-

That would have to cost extra.

For SCMS miters, what you really want is a modulo -45 display, not the simplistic modulo 90 and half angle. Dunno why you would want such a thing anyway. The vernier scale on my CMS is so faint I can't read it.

Reply to
MikeWhy

Why? The entire point of using tools is to make tasks easier. If a tool fails to save effort, such that using it to perform a task requires as much effort as doing that task manually, the tool is useless. If it requires more effort, it's worse than useless. What's amusing about that?

Reply to
Doug Miller

That's correct -- but note that miter gauges on saws don't indicate the actual cut angle, they indicate (90 degrees minus cut angle). For example, when the miter gauge is set at zero, it makes a square (90 degree) cut; set it at 30 degrees, and it cuts an angle of 60; and so on. So to cut those 45.5-degree angles, you would set the miter gauge at 44.5 degrees.

Reply to
Doug Miller

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