What do you want from a $20 angle finder?!?!

Honestly, run down to your local office supply store and get a set of drafting squares... you will get 30,45,60 and 90 degree triangles that are dead accurate. And once you set it for 45, adjust the stop screw on your saw so you can hit it every time after that without needing to re-calibrate.

BTW: That angle finder has a +/- 0.2 degree accuracy, but displays in 0.1 degree increments, like many of the others (ie: Wixey). For a bit more, you can find one that has better accuracy, such as the Klein at +/- 0.1 degrees.

Cheers,
Brad

 

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Honestly, run down to your local office supply store and get a set of drafting squares...

I've used a set of plastic drafting squares for many years, even though I have a Wixey within arm's reach. They're so much faster than the Wixey for the standard 45 and 90 angles and I won't have to obsess over that .1 off. I use them to double check every time I take the blade to 45 or back to 90.

 

I have a wixey. if I want to get the blade set dead on at any angle I want, I could take me a long time.im fine with being .1 degree off. cant say I've noticed that causing any issues when assembling projects.

 

@99Tom99 , curious what wood and project you're working on that will hold those tolerances after being cut.

My experience has been that wood has tension, will absorb moisture and just generally move when it feels like it. 🤷‍♂️ I was advised long ago to avoid chasing numbers and work with the material. i.e. a perfect 45 cut might fit the math but not the actual project... kind of like when you're fitting baseboards for the first time and discover that drywall corners are not actually 90 deg.

 

+1 with @MrUnix 's reply above. IMHO, you cannot beat the accuracy of a good manual angle gauge, when setting a blade angle and for stop-screw adjustment. Also, a heck-of-a-lot quicker and less time-consuming.

 

It sounds like this didn't even include seeing if the cut piece is at the desired angle.

 

This, 100%. Others have said similar in this thread and it is what I would say.

Blades deflect depending on grind, speed of feed, and above all sharpness. I've had a dull carbide blade deflect long before it burns. The setting doesn't matter, the results as shown by the cut are what matter.

Generally, I don't consider a saw cut to be a finished cut if precision is important. For real precision, you want a cut finished by a slicing blade, like with a shooting board or for long joints a power jointer. I often finish edge joints with a hand plane even after the jointer, because I prefer to put a little spring in them.

If you really want mind bending, talk to a machinist who's done precision work. They will tell you a cut surface is not as precise as a ground surface. Even with a ground surface, there is a hysteresis that results from starting shape and tool deflection, as well as some effect from relaxation of stress in the material as a result of cutting it. Getting to the desired level of precision can take a lot of time, and more a matter of skill and experience than the machine itself. Machines provide consistency and measuring devices provide information to the machine operator, nothing more.

 

Assuming;

Saw has a degree scale
blade is up to the task
stable material
skills adequate
time required

And can go on. Just pointing out there's a checklist of sorts to get this show on the road. A breakdown in the list above can mask,veil,or hide things that can easily be construed as something like, oh maybe a $20 angle finder isn't working?

When all else fails,set the degree scale at some known angles,90..22.5, 45, and so forth. Make test cuts... preferably on material close to the target material. Then check the outcome.

Good luck with your project.

 

Did you also consider the machine's mechanism for tilting the blade? I'm sure the threads on the shaft that tilts the arbor aren't like the threads for something like a milling machine; which would indicate that the manufacturer never intended the level of precision that you are trying to achieve. If you are expecting such precision, have you also verified runout on the arbor, and on the blade? What about deflection of the blade, are you going to test cuts every time you tilt the blade, or change wood species, or cut through harder and softer grain; all of these things could impact the angle of the cut, to say nothing about hand feeding the stock. Save yourself a lot of anguish and consider the whole picture and what your goals are when building a project. Just like in school where you were shown how to round numbers because after a certain point the numbers are meaninless round off your expectations of what is needed.

 

I‘m going to tell you to relax and forget about trying to calibrate the saw.

I’ve come to realize you can’t 100% trust digital bevel gauges, even Wixey, and you can‘t rely on drafting triangles. Yeah, you may hit it in the first try, but when your working with your premier wood, you may only have one shot.

It’s better to dial the saw in by doing test cuts. Learning to work this way is much better and far less stressful than trying to calibrate a machine or use gauges or rely on human eyesight.

 

My son made two steel triangles, 45-45-90 and 30-60-90, but he said they might be off about one thousandth of a degree.

 

I also use the drafting squares to set angles on my miter gauge.

 

Whenever I want something to fit well I use a handplane to get it to fit perfectly.

 

Not sure what your project is but when I build box mantels I set the angle to 45.5°. When doing the glue up with tape I burnish the corners and have no gaps and a clean look. This has worked better than doing 45° which doesn’t give you the room for glue and doesn’t allow burnishing to work as well.

 

I think the Wixey clone is fine, but if you really want perfection, use a shooting board. Watch vids from Crosman.

 

When setting an angle , I go past it and the reverse to take up.any back lash. I use a Wixey on the blade. Of course, it is critical to make certain opposite side are EXACTLY THE SAME LENGTH.

On small boxes with thinner stock, I use a shooting board.

 

.1 degree might not be worth worrying about
Try using drafting triangles for repeatable settings

 

I've made many long boxes with 90's via 45's on my Unisaw and every one came out fine. Yes, I check the 45 from time to time, but that kind of iron seems to hold its own, as far as staying with the settings, pretty well over the years.

 

Point 1 degree is pretty small. If your'e gluing the joint, you maybe will get small deg offsets just from that. However, if this is a miter situation then cut one at + 0.1 deg...cut the other at -0.1 deg

 

I do use anything special to get my degrees. I use what ever I got and make a test cut.

1 degree means a lot of a table top..