Wixey Digital Angle Gauge Review

Although I like cool new techy devices as much as anyone, with a limited budget for new toys I have to spend my workshop money wisely. I had seen these spiffy new digital angle gauges in various configurations in the stores for a while, but it wasn't until I had a couple of projects requiring some odd angles that I seriously felt compelled to purchase one.

Now that I have the Wixey Digital Angle Gauge, I find it to be a great little addition to the workshop. Like many woodworkers I have my "special" square, in this case with a thin metal blade that I keep in a safe place so it stays accurate, and use just for resetting tools back to 90 degrees. Well, the digital angle gauge did validate that my square and technique both allowed me to set my blade tilt to 90 degrees, but that I was pretty sure of anyway.

Unfortunately there aren't a lot of angle measuring instruments that can do odd angles (although I use drafting triangles for 30 , 60 and 45 degrees). The project I was working on was a series of octagonal table tops requiring a 22 1/2 degree angle for each of the joints. Now my miter saw has a stop for this angle, but I wanted to actually cut these angles using the blade tilt on my table saw. After zeroing the angle gauge on table top of the saw, I used the magnets in the base to attach it to my blade and dialed it over to 67.5 degrees (yes sometimes you need to do a little math with these thingys) which is 90 degrees - 22 1/2 degrees. After cutting the segments for a test octagon to length (note the precise length is as important as the angle here) I set up a stop and cut the angles on all of the joints. As you can see from the photo above, the results were a perfect octagon with tight fitting angles!

Ok, so now the project is done, now what? Well, you know all those adjustments on our power tools that we avoid doing like our blade tilt on the table or miter saws, or tilting the fence on our jointer. Let me tell you this device opens up all sorts of possibilities because now it's so easy to slap this thing back on and dial it back to 90 degrees - no muss - no fuss! Even in my case the worst evil, tilting the table on my drill press! Now I simply slap this on my chuck, set it to zero, place it on the table and back to 90 degrees it goes!

So for you techno geeks, here are some of the specs - The angle gauge use a single CR2032 battery and I have yet to go through my first one, but it does come with a spare. It has a range of +/- 150 degrees and a resolution of 0.1 degrees. The repeatability is +/- 0.1 degrees as well. It measures 2" X 2" X 1.3" and is manufactured by Barry Wixey Development in Sanibel, FL. You can see more information and their other products at www.wixey.com.

In summary, although initially a little skeptical, I have found this device to be a great addition to the workshop and a definite must have. Not only providing an accurate way of setting tools to any angle, but doing it so fast and simply you won't believe it!