Saving Wood and Sanity: The Wixey Digital Protractor

When we moved into our first place, my in-laws were generous enough to gift us with some much needed baseboards. While my father-in-law is a fairly handy type, my husband and his brother are … well, let’s just say when they were growing up, they spent more time playing Super Mario Brothers than helping out in the ol’ garage (should anyone ever need someone to jump on an evil mushroom, these are your men).

With the “help” of his sons, my father-in-law got to work. Unfortunately for him (and our neighbours who had to put up with the intermittent shriek of the miter saw all day), the job took a bit longer than anticipated. The corners and edges in our home weren’t quite 90 degree angles of perfection. In fact, they were a little more this way … a little less that way – you know, whichever. And the direction given by my husband and brother-in-law on the angle to cut was also less than ideal. They’d come racing toward my father-in-law with a hand bent in a certain direction and tell him, “cut it like this.” Yep. It was a long day for dear old dad.

If only, if only we had the Wixey Digital Protractor. I love this thing. You basically open it up, align each arm along a wall and read the digital angle display. You then bring it over to your miter saw and either set your saw to the angle using your saw’s dials or manually slide your saw along the protractor (spooning it, essentially) to get the same angle. And voila! Perfection the first time! And, the spooning makes the project that much more romantic. The Wixey can set both miter and bevel angles and is ideal for baseboards, crown molding, valances and other home improvement projects.

Wixey WR400 3-Inch Digital Protractor is available online for $49.99 (for the 3” model) or just slightly more (for the 8” model).