Beall Angle measuring device

[Jason Garrett]

The Beall wobbles on at least two sides

Mine does too.

[Gary Keedwell]

I have the Wixey and am very satisfied with it.

Gary K.

[James Phillips]

How does one eliminate any cosine error that may occur when the blade moves, or if the user places the tilt box on the blade in a way that lays the tilt box off on some unknown amount out from a dead vertical position. I don't mean the axis that is secured by the magnets I mean the axis that can be found by twisting the tilt box with the magnets in contact with the blade - or simply rotating the blade a bit.

You will get some error here, but it is very small. I will not attempt to lay out the math here, but you would see the movement well before the error is significant. Bottom line: If it looks 'veritcal' (perpendicular to the table in both axes) then you are close enough.

[Jim DeLaney]

...First, the Wixey is not plastic. Just the front and back are plastic. The rest is an aluminum extrusion....

Okay, I stand corrected on the Wixey not being a totally plastic case. However, I did not mean the reference to plastic as a 'slam' on the Wixey. There's really nothing wromg with having a plastic case. After all, nearly all your portable tools these days have plastic cases or housings - your drill, sabre saw, biscuit jointer, circular saw, etc. - and nobody blast them for it, so why should the Wixey be any different?

The metal case doesn't make the Beall any better - just different from the Wixey. Dropping either of them on a concrete floor will likely render them useless - regardless of case material, so what's the big deal?

The Beall uses a readily available battery. I might have to look a little harder to find a place that sells the Wixey's battery, but still, it's available at drug stores, Radio Shacks, maybe even K-Mart or Wal-Mart, so it's not a big problem.

Getting to the meat of my comparison: They're both equally accurate, at least in my uses for them. They're both about the same price, and they're both very useful tools.

[Steve Clardy]

I have the wixley. I like it.

[glenn bradley]

How does one eliminate any cosine error that may occur when the blade moves, or if the user places the tilt box on the blade in a way that lays the tilt box off on some unknown amount out from a dead vertical position. I don't mean the axis that is secured by the magnets I mean the axis that can be found by twisting the tilt box with the magnets in contact with the blade - or simply rotating the blade a bit.

You can get a false reading if you alter the 'pivot axis' when moving from surface to surface. This of course happens to some degree unless you're a robot. The tolerance seems very acceptable. The pivot would have to be significantly off to get a bad reading. I've found no problems eye-balling the correct position but have experimented on how far I have to go to get a bad reading; pretty far.

[glenn bradley]

I have a Beall and can not use it, it just has to much sensitivity and I can set it on my saw and it will never 0 out but a few times if I don't move and the wind is not blowing.

So I still just use my good old drafting triangle to set my blade.

My shop is on a metal frame on blocks and the frame moves to much for it I guess.

Bill, I would look at getting a replacement. I haven't seen any other posts about that behavior. My DRO for my planer had some issues and the replacement works beautifully. The dancing you're getting doesn't sound like the norm.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

You will get some error here, but it is very small. I will not attempt to lay out the math here, but you would see the movement well before the error is significant. Bottom line: If it looks 'veritcal' (perpendicular to the table in both axes) then you are close enough.

Yah that's what the Beal people told me.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

You make that sound bad.

Gary K.

Now why would a tool fixation be bad? ;-)

[Gary Keedwell]

Never

Gary K.

[Bill Huber]

Bill, I would look at getting a replacement. I haven't seen any other posts about that behavior. My DRO for my planer had some issues and the replacement works beautifully. The dancing you're getting doesn't sound like the norm.

Glenn, I can put the unit on my bench which is connect to the wall and not the floor and it will zero just fine. When I put it on my Ridgid sander table it will zero just fine, it is on a bench attached to the wall.
So it has to be the floor, if I set it on the saw and don't move for 30 sec. some times it will zero out, but then when I put it on the blade it jumps all over the place, it will go from .05 to .8 and back and forth.

I am sure that no one here has a shop setting on blocks like I have. It is just a Tuff Shed with 2"x6" galvanized steel floor joist and 3/4 in. plywood.

[Bruce Benjamin]

Just to up date:
I e-mailed Tom Hintz about his Beal review. I asked the same question I posted above about Cosine error when the operator sets the thing on the blade at a slight angle or the blade moves a bit.
He said he tried to induce error that way and found no error developing.

And

I emailed Beal with the same question this was the reply:



So apparently they (Beal) haven't got a mechanism to correct for cosine error but rather they expect that you'll visually place it accurately enough.

Maybe some consistent physical vertical reference like a square along the front or back as you place it might be a good idea.

It almost sounds like you're looking for a problem with the Beall that doesn't really exist. Are you just trying to make a point that there is the possibility of error or have you actually experienced the problem? I've used mine for a while now and I haven't had any problem at all with keeping the unit in the same position. I don't even really think about it. I zero it, stick it to a blade, crank the blade over, read the numbers. Tilting it forwards or backwards a slight amount won't cause any significant error. I really don't see the problem. If you don't think it will work well then you probably shouldn't buy one. But if you do buy one I'm fairly certain that you'd be happy with it if you give it a chance. To each their own I guess.

Bruce

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I just ordered one.

Normally I am not a gadget person but what the hell~~~~