I saw this review on another forum and thought some here might benefit. I do know the person who posted it and he approved me sharing it.
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I have been using my Wixey Angle Gauge for a few years and it works fine. Lowes sells the Toughbuilt Angle Gauge. We got one back in returns a couple of days ago, and after testing, the only thing we could think was the guy just couldn't figure out how to use it. Since the gauge worked OK, the boss knocked 50% off the price and put it in clearance - and I grabbed it.
Today, I had a chance to test it against the Wixey. The first thing I did was put them on my saw blade. The first photo shows that they agree my blade is 90° to the table. Then I leaned on one corner of the saw. The Wixey shows that I knocked the angle off by .1°, because the Wixey displays down to a 10th of a degree. The Toughbuilt shows I knocked the angle off by, only, .05°, as the Toughbuilt displays down to 100th of a degree. I zeroed both gauges to the table before attaching them to the blade.
When you first turn a Wixey on, no matter how you hold it, it will display some angle reading. When you first turn a Toughbuilt on, if you are holding it so it is laying on it's back, it will display an error. Once you mount the Toughbuilt on the device you are testing, the gauge displays the angle.
With these gauges - to get an accurate angle reading, they must be zeroed first. When I set both gauges on the saw table, they both read a few degrees off zero. When I pressed the zero button on the Wixey, it blinked a couple times and then displayed zero. When I pressed the zero button on the Toughbuilt, it thought about it for two or three seconds then displayed zero.
The Wixey has two buttons - On/Off and Zero. The Toughbuilt adds a Mode button and a Hold button. The Hold button just locks whatever angle is currently displayed. The mode button switches between degrees, percentage, ft/in, and m/mm. I haven't played with the mode button to test the other modes.
While neither of the two gauges will stick to aluminum or plastic, The Toughbuilt has an added feature for piping. The Toughbuilt has a groove in the magnetic surface to align the gauge with the pipe. The Wixey does not. Both gauges are sensitive enough to show an incorrect angle, if they are not aligned perfectly with piping.
All in all - it looks to me that the Toughbuilt is the better of the gauges. I think the Wixey was/is a good gauge, but advancements in technology have caught up.
If you are interested, Lowes sells these for $19.98 -- https://www.lowes.com/pd/TOUGHBUILT-...vel/5013732061
I checked Amazon, but couldn't find Toughbuilt gauges. There are some like the Toughbuilt, but they were more expensive."
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I have been using my Wixey Angle Gauge for a few years and it works fine. Lowes sells the Toughbuilt Angle Gauge. We got one back in returns a couple of days ago, and after testing, the only thing we could think was the guy just couldn't figure out how to use it. Since the gauge worked OK, the boss knocked 50% off the price and put it in clearance - and I grabbed it.
Today, I had a chance to test it against the Wixey. The first thing I did was put them on my saw blade. The first photo shows that they agree my blade is 90° to the table. Then I leaned on one corner of the saw. The Wixey shows that I knocked the angle off by .1°, because the Wixey displays down to a 10th of a degree. The Toughbuilt shows I knocked the angle off by, only, .05°, as the Toughbuilt displays down to 100th of a degree. I zeroed both gauges to the table before attaching them to the blade.
When you first turn a Wixey on, no matter how you hold it, it will display some angle reading. When you first turn a Toughbuilt on, if you are holding it so it is laying on it's back, it will display an error. Once you mount the Toughbuilt on the device you are testing, the gauge displays the angle.
With these gauges - to get an accurate angle reading, they must be zeroed first. When I set both gauges on the saw table, they both read a few degrees off zero. When I pressed the zero button on the Wixey, it blinked a couple times and then displayed zero. When I pressed the zero button on the Toughbuilt, it thought about it for two or three seconds then displayed zero.
The Wixey has two buttons - On/Off and Zero. The Toughbuilt adds a Mode button and a Hold button. The Hold button just locks whatever angle is currently displayed. The mode button switches between degrees, percentage, ft/in, and m/mm. I haven't played with the mode button to test the other modes.
While neither of the two gauges will stick to aluminum or plastic, The Toughbuilt has an added feature for piping. The Toughbuilt has a groove in the magnetic surface to align the gauge with the pipe. The Wixey does not. Both gauges are sensitive enough to show an incorrect angle, if they are not aligned perfectly with piping.
All in all - it looks to me that the Toughbuilt is the better of the gauges. I think the Wixey was/is a good gauge, but advancements in technology have caught up.
If you are interested, Lowes sells these for $19.98 -- https://www.lowes.com/pd/TOUGHBUILT-...vel/5013732061
I checked Amazon, but couldn't find Toughbuilt gauges. There are some like the Toughbuilt, but they were more expensive."
