Pro tip: switching to a digital angle finder saved me 3 hours on stair stringers last week

I used to do all my stair layout with a speed square and a framing square, marking each rise and run by hand. Messed up a set of stringers on a Friday afternoon, had to re-cut them on Saturday. My old man always said the squares were good enough. But after that Saturday I went and bought a digital angle finder from Home Depot for like 40 bucks. Now I just set the angle from my calculations and transfer it straight to the board. Cut a full set of 13 stringers in under an hour without a single mistake. Has anyone else made a similar switch and found it worth it?

2 comments

2 Comments

jana_fox501d ago

I grabbed a digital angle finder last year after I messed up a miter cut on some crown molding for the third time. It took me about 15 minutes to set up for the stair stringers on my deck project, and I cut all 8 of them in one go with no waste. The old speed square method always left me second guessing my lines, especially on the compound angles. That little tool paid for itself on the first job alone. Did you find it helped with other cuts around the house too?

xena122h ago

That digital finder really shines on crown molding too - the compound angles on that stuff are brutal when you're trying to hold the piece upside down and backwards against the saw fence. I started using mine for cutting baseboard corners on old houses where the walls are never square, just set it against the wall, read the angle dead on, and split the difference for the cut. The best part is the magnetic base, sticks right to the saw blade or the square so you don't have to hold it steady while you're trying to mark your line. Makes those 45 degree cuts you think are right actually come out perfect the first time around.