Bevel Gauges

Love my lee Valley! The switch lock is fast easy and sturdy. The blade is stainless steel and the wooden handle keeps it light. Veritas claims that the finish on the handle is resin impregnated and bloody waterproof. Love this tool!
 
Richard Leon said:
You can also use the lever on both sides of the Veritas gauge.

Does the Veritas gauge have a lever on both sides? I am thinking it is only on one side.  You can of course slide/flip the blade over to the other direction, but that doesn't work if you need the angle on the end  of the blade up/down in a particular situation.

Twist lock at end or lever lock at pivot. Kind of depends on preference and usage.  They both beat the side knob hands down.

Seth
 
Lever is on just one side of the Veritas; as you mention, you can flip the blade sides to put the lever where convenient.  I can't picture the situation you are referring to.  Advantage of a lever, minor I know, is one-handed operation.  Coincidentally last night I needed to transfer some angles and had to hold parts in place.  Very easy to tip the blade with a finger while locking into place.

What bugs me is that they are difficult to transfer to a drawing since the body can lie flat, but the blade is in the air.  Usually use a jointed board to abut the blade and mark the line, but a hassle.  Luckily found a BS-5 and BS-10 last week.  They have the knob on the face, but at least you can more easily transfer to drawings.  If Veritas made a lever version of this (since the lever is their patent, I believe), I'd be there in a heartbeat.
 
jmbfestool said:
Captainwrinkles said:
Lee Valley just came out with this one today

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?cat=1&p=69055

might be worth a look  [smile]

More expensive in the UK   [crying]

http://www.langtoninfo.co.uk/showitem.aspx?isbn=0038728082800&loc=GBP

Just picked one up from the display in Lee Valley Saturday - for $20, can't go wrong. Anyway, the digital is very acurate - some pretty handy features - digital readout flips to read from  both directions and you can get the complimentary angle with a button push (if you have trouble with subtraction  [embarassed] ). I like it because I can get in tighter spots than with my digital angle finder. I doubt I'd pay the UK price - 4X the Lee Valley price!
 
PaulMarcel said:
Lever is on just one side of the Veritas; as you mention, you can flip the blade sides to put the lever where convenient.  I can't picture the situation you are referring to.  Advantage of a lever, minor I know, is one-handed operation.  Coincidentally last night I needed to transfer some angles and had to hold parts in place.  Very easy to tip the blade with a finger while locking into place.

What bugs me is that they are difficult to transfer to a drawing since the body can lie flat, but the blade is in the air.  Usually use a jointed board to abut the blade and mark the line, but a hassle.  Luckily found a BS-5 and BS-10 last week.  They have the knob on the face, but at least you can more easily transfer to drawings.  If Veritas made a lever version of this (since the lever is their patent, I believe), I'd be there in a heartbeat.

Back in the day (before we got CAD) I used tools like this to create the drawings.  It sometimes comes in handy to transfer an angle to the sliding bevel.
[attachthumb=#]

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I apologize for the "non-Marcel" quality of the pictures...  [big grin]
 
SRSemenza said:
Richard Leon said:
You can also use the lever on both sides of the Veritas gauge.

Does the Veritas gauge have a lever on both sides? I am thinking it is only on one side.  You can of course slide/flip the blade over to the other direction, but that doesn't work if you need the angle on the end  of the blade up/down in a particular situation.

Twist lock at end or lever lock at pivot. Kind of depends on preference and usage.  They both beat the side knob hands down.

Seth

Partway through this thread, the quote that put my comment in context was left out. I was referring to this measuring tool which was a reply to a previous comment about what an angle reference is.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=52403&cat=1,42936,50298,52403
 
Yes, the Angle Reference Plate is simple but looks very functional.  I  like that it is thick so it can be placed flat and have the bevel blade right on it.

Seth
 
After I was done setting up the Festool booth at the Somerset Woodworking Show today, I took a stroll around the show floor to look at the other vendors.  Low and behold, Woodpeckers is there!  Guess what they have on display???  The 7" bevel sliding T square!!!

I played with it for a while and I can now say it is awesome!  Heavy duty is the best way to describe this thing.  I've seen and used a lot of different sliding T squares over the years and this is the best I've come across.  THICK stainless steel blade with a solid aluminum handle and the "vise" type tightening lever is pretty damn good with the exception of being sharp on the edges of the little bar.  They need to spend the time to deburr it for that kind of money.  Super smooth action and the blade swings a full 360 degrees within the handle.

Lots of good vendors there with loads of accessories, tools, my friend has an antique tool booth, free woodworking seminars and even Felder/Hammer is there with their machines.

Pictures

 
Ron,

What hole?  That's a viewing window to your Woodpeckers bill.  [big grin]  Right or left eye, your preference.
 
Anyone know what the claimed accuracy is for the angle plate?  Maybe they don't specify it, but I'm thinking it's on the web site and I'm just not seeing it.  Emailed their "mailroom" a couple days ago but haven't heard back yet.  Thanks for any help you can give.

Regards,

John
 
John Stevens said:
Anyone know what the claimed accuracy is for the angle plate?  Maybe they don't specify it, but I'm thinking it's on the web site and I'm just not seeing it.  Emailed their "mailroom" a couple days ago but haven't heard back yet.  Thanks for any help you can give.

Regards,

John

I don't see it on the website either, but it is probably super accurate based on all there other stuff.

Seth
 
The angle plate is marked down to the quarter-degree.  Is that what you meant by accuracy?

From their site:
http://www.woodpeck.com/anglereferenceplate.html

"The broad face of the plate allows the engraved angle lines to be spaced for easy reading. You can easily distinguish whole degrees because they're solid lines. Half-degrees are dashed, while quarter-degrees are dotted. "

As an aside, I got one of the recently-released everywhere (LV, Woodcraft, Rockler) "General" digital bevel gauges... just wanted something to use while waiting on the Woodpecker model.. what a POJ.  The main 'handle' is plastic!  It's just silvery plastic.  Returning that thing.  =/
Putting the bucks towards the WP model and the angle gauge.  
 
I believe John was referring to "accuracy" as contrasted with "precision".  Those of us in the physical sciences have either internalized the difference or had it beaten into us some time in the past.

Accuracy has to do with whether or not the measurements are correct and if they would be reproducible on another similar device or on one that is far more accurate.

Precision in the case of the Woodpeckers tool has to do with the printed measurements.  The measurements are marked to the quarter of a degree, which is the precision, and can be easily read to that number.  Perhaps some will feel that if the lines are thin that they can read to the 1/8 of a degree and might say that is the precision.

But are these printed numbers correct?  Is the angle marked as 12-1/4 degrees really 12.250 degrees?  If the world's most perfect miter saw (mine is dark blue-black with bright green latches) is set to the angle Woodpeckers claims is 22-1/2 degrees and if eight boards are cut to the same length with that angle on each end, will they then form a perfect octagon with no gaps at the joints?  If they do, then the measurements were accurate.  If they don't, then although the precision was marked nicely on the red aluminum, it wasn't accurate enough for our work.

The Woodpeckers setup gauge has a stated precision of 1/4 degree, but I don't believe they state the accuracy, as Starrett might do.

Gary
 
Right , accuracy. Woodpecker's usually states the accuracy. Based on their production methods I think it is probably better than needed.  I have found their markings from one tool to another to be  really consistant as well.

Seth
 
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