Gosh! Didn't Know It Was That Important

[David Weaver]

Well, for one-third the price you could get one of these to check bevel angles and hav e tool you can use for lots of other things besides. http://www.amazon.com/Shinwa-Japanes...P8PXJCWH3Y5WZK

That is exactly the tool that came to mind when I thought about it, too. That woodpeckers thing is way over the top. I know the power tool guys love the woodpecker stuff that comes out, but I cringe every time I see an aluminum "tool".

[Chris Griggs]

Pshhhh...that's so lame, I mean it measures in degrees....real men measure angles in radians. I like to hone most my edges to an angle of pi/6 radians.

[David Weaver]

Pshhhh...that's so lame, I mean it measures in degrees....real men measure angles in radians. I like to hone most my edges to an angle of pi/6 radians.

That's pretty steep! (well, for chisels)

[Daniel Rode]

My work is precise, so I bought a protractor that measures in minutes and seconds. I use a pocket microscope to read it. Still cost less that $45

[Chris Griggs]

That's pretty steep! (well, for chisels)

Its 30 degrees....do you need to review your unit circle or do you consider 30 degrees steep for chisels? :-)

[Steve Voigt]

Its 30 degrees....do you need to review your unit circle or do you consider 30 degrees steep for chisels? :-)

Oh, snap!
I like to grind the primary at 5pi/72 before honing at pi/6.

[Chris Griggs]

Ummmmmmm not to be an even bigger geek than I've already been in this thread, but errrr that's 12.5 degrees Steve. I think you mean 5pi/36?

[Steve Voigt]

Ummmmmmm not to be an even bigger geek than I've already been in this thread, but errrr that's 12.5 degrees Steve. I think you mean 5pi/36?

I am shamed.
I will have to do some degree/radian conversions and SOHCAHTOA before supper.

[Chris Griggs]

I am shamed.
I will have to do some degree/radian conversions and SOHCAHTOA before supper.

Well I should confess, I didn't remember a lot of this stuff until recently, but I randomly decided to register for some undergraduate math courses this coming year (I work in higher ed so its free for me), so I've been reviewing a lot of basic trig and such as of late in preparation.

[Mike Allen1010]

I randomly decided to register for some undergraduate math courses this coming year (I work in higher ed so its free for me), so I've been reviewing a lot of basic trig and such as of late in preparation.

CG,

You are a far better man than I. Personally I would rather have needles in my eye.

Besides everyone knows you certainly don't need math for woodworking!!! …ummm...... wait a minute, ....maybe this explains why the drawer openings in my projects that are supposed to be "progressively decreasing in size in a proportional way" from the bottom to the top of the case never end up even close.

Maybe I should reconsider; what are those courses you're taking again? Shouldn't there be an app for this? Please say yes !!

Cheers, Mike

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Okay, I admit- I think it's a cool tool, if not a bit of a luxury item. Most of my tools I know what I have them ground at, but I sharpen a lot for other folks and it would be a nice quick way to check a bevel angle, especially on power planer blades that I have found come in varying angles. I recently started sharpening those for folks with the Tormek. (Works great, by the way, with their planer blade jig).

I have that Japanese protractor thing... Somewhere... Deep in a drawer. I don't really like it, although mine does not have as good of a scale as the one Sean linked to. That one seems a bit easier to read than mine.

As as for aluminum tools, the Woodpecker tools are thick and well-made. A flimsier aluminum tool maybe not, but a quality one works equally well and doesn't rust. Question to ponder- does aluminum move more or less than steel with temperature changes? I don't know the answer to that. I would suspect more, so perhaps if doing machine work down to the microns an aluminum tool may have disadvantages, but for guys like me scoring a line and then cutting as close as possible to it, aluminum works fine.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

... But for $50 I am probably out. I would rather buy a chisel or other tool for that.

[David Weaver]

Its 30 degrees....do you need to review your unit circle or do you consider 30 degrees steep for chisels? :-)

Yeah, it's pretty steep. I keep mine shy of that by a little bit. good starting point for plane irons, though.

[Chris Griggs]

Interesting. I really wasn't sure if you considered that steep of if you had converted wrong. I like my bench chisels (which are 01) right at 30 degrees and sometimes will even raise my narrow ones up a degree or 2 from there. I used to keep them lower than that but I found that they didn't hold up as well as I would like to chopping when below 30

[Bill Houghton]

All these cheaper solutions for the problem Woodpeckers has solved...but, guys, none of them are anodized in bright red! That adds huge precision to your work.