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Angle Finder? where did you get them?

dgrigorenko

dgrigorenko

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Big Rapids MI
I have been trying to snag a decent angle finder... i got one from ACE hardware, and it stopped being accurate super fast, then i got a Swanson one from lowes, and it was wrong right out of the box..... i am looking for a digital one now, preferably under $100. i saw one at lowes, but it was kinda big and made for framing. i know i have seen multiple writeups on here with guys using small torpedo levels with a digital readout on them; i beleive one was made by craftsman, but a google search came up with no such item...... any help would be awesome.

G
 
asp387 said:
copycat! i bought mine first! :wave1:

so what if it was only about 24 hours earlier. still counts.

i use mine a lot and it's never steered me wrong... see post link below.
http://naxja.org/forum/showpost.php?p=244405074&postcount=186
Click to expand...

Same one I have too. It's accuracy is a blessing... and a curse
happysad.gif

Billy
 
Gravesdiggerxj said:
I got a digital one from Harbor Freight I use for my tube bender... it was less than 25 smackers
Click to expand...

Hows that work for ya strat? I saw that a couple weeks ago but just could'nt pull the trigger.
 
Bryson said:
^ Same. I've had good luck with Starett's angle finder.
Click to expand...
have one like that I got at lowes and I have to press on the face to stop the dial from moving to fast before I set it because it likes to teeter a lot. Does the Starret's do the same thing? Obviously it is its nature to teeter but mine does it pretty wildly.
 
slcpunk74 said:
have one like that I got at lowes and I have to press on the face to stop the dial from moving to fast before I set it because it likes to teeter a lot. Does the Starret's do the same thing? Obviously it is its nature to teeter but mine does it pretty wildly.
Click to expand...

The most accurate rotary dial angle finders will teeter like crazy. It's simply because there is VERY little friction on the shaft making it more accurate. I usually set it up, and just wait for it to stop swaying before getting my reading.

The digitals are badass, but theres nothing like the reliability of gravity.

Now the craftsman, and empire angle finders that I've used at my fab shop have been complete crap.
 
JeepFreak21 said:
Same one I have too. It's accuracy is a blessing... and a curse
happysad.gif

Billy
Click to expand...
sometimes i wonder about its accuracy. i verified it with a mitoyo dial indicator and it was within .001 on flatness like i said (granted that was only over 3/4" diameter)... i dunno... i'm tempted to trust it from now on even though i probably will continue to remeasure with another form.
 
Bryson said:
The most accurate rotary dial angle finders will teeter like crazy. It's simply because there is VERY little friction on the shaft making it more accurate. I usually set it up, and just wait for it to stop swaying before getting my reading.

The digitals are badass, but theres nothing like the reliability of gravity.

Now the craftsman, and empire angle finders that I've used at my fab shop have been complete crap.
Click to expand...


well i am kinda sorry to hear that... cause i just went and picked up a craftsman one. so far it seems to be doing ok, at minimum, it is probably better than the two previous ones i had. one thing i did notice with it is that it does require it to be good and level on the surface you are measuring. (does this make sense? as in it needs to be in the same perpendicular plane as when you calibrated it). otherwise it can give some off readings.
 
dgrigorenko said:
well i am kinda sorry to hear that... cause i just went and picked up a craftsman one. so far it seems to be doing ok, at minimum, it is probably better than the two previous ones i had. one thing i did notice with it is that it does require it to be good and level on the surface you are measuring. (does this make sense? as in it needs to be in the same perpendicular plane as when you calibrated it). otherwise it can give some off readings.
Click to expand...

that does make sense and that's what i do with mine.
 
dgrigorenko said:
well i am kinda sorry to hear that... cause i just went and picked up a craftsman one. so far it seems to be doing ok, at minimum, it is probably better than the two previous ones i had. one thing i did notice with it is that it does require it to be good and level on the surface you are measuring. (does this make sense? as in it needs to be in the same perpendicular plane as when you calibrated it). otherwise it can give some off readings.
Click to expand...

The craftsman is probubly still better than the empire. The arm of the empire would stick to the housing giving a 3-4deg +/- variance almost everytime it was used.
 
I just use my craftsman to mill out some shims for the rear, doing each One separatly and they both came out perfect. So I am happy so far
 
I have a Craftsman one as well that I used to set the inner c's on the custom 44 front I started, also used ot to set the perches on my 8.8 I built. Works great.
 
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