triangle ruler

granite angle ruler

angle plate precision ruler

Do they look like these, albeit with less in the box?
Precision angle block set.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266174600860

Bill

Could well have originally been a 6 piece set but the 30° has gone missing. By using suitable combinations that would have given all the 5° increments up past 90°.

These days the common, affordable, import sets are 10 piece giving 1° increments up to over 100° and 12 piece ones adding 1/2° and 1/4° increments.

But there are many varieties. Sets covering restricted ranges such as up to 10° are quite common.

If you re filthy rich Starrett will sell you a 6 block set giving 1° increments from 0 to 99° for just under £9,000.

1 1/2″ is quite short for stand alone use, Jasons picture shows one such set up, so possibly intended for use with a tangent bar.

Clive

Hi DMB, I don’t think they came from ARC, as they only sold an economy set of 5 from 1 to 5 degrees in 1 degree increments, and the box of 10 that JasonB has shown, plus those shaped ones in the red box, and the boxed set of 10 and the red box, was only from catalogue No. 10.

Regards Nick.

I suppos ethe amount of use comes down to what and how much you get upto in the workshop.

For setting work at an anhle in teh vice rather than th eimage I posted earlier I mostly use one of the digital angle boxes.

Where I mostly use these angle blocks is to set the vice at an angle on the mill table. I don’t use a swivel base and would not trust the markings to be 100% but it is very easy to place one of thes eblocks against a vice jaw and then you have a surfac ethat is parallel to the mill table and easy to clock in with an indicator.

On 19 January 2026 at 23:45 not done it yet Said:

Emma Ritson reviewed a dodgy set, supplied by one of the cheapo/sub-standard/reject item sellers in China.  Her review was totally honest (not like the vast majority of reviews) and she was never invited to do any more reviews, surprise, surprise!

here it is:

I recommend watching the review.  Emma’s conclusion for ordinary workshop use is “good enough”, “useful enough for the price”, “not so shabby” and “they’re OK”.  But not for precision machining!

The angles are good, the worst being the 5 degree gauge, which was “not far” off – 2.4 minutes.

Main problem is the gauge faces weren’t all square or parallel.  Thus tilt could affect the angle slightly when the gauges are gripped in a vice. Emma correctly says this matters for precision work, when it would have to be allowed for.

The word “quality” is meaningless in the absence of a specification.  Better when buying tools to define “fit for purpose” and “value for money”.  Both depend on what the tool is used for in your workshop.   When buying angle gauges:

• A hobby workshop might never need them.   All gauges are fit for purpose, but none are value for money.  Walk away.
• My set is used infrequently, and, because I don’t need anything special, the Bangood set is fit for purpose and value for money.  I don’t need anything posh, because my angle gauges are used to:
  • sanity check angles related to XY coordinates on a milling table or when marking out.   Only needed when the angle isn’t a right angle, which is rare.  Set-squares measure right angles.
  • set items at an angle more accurately than the scale on my rotary table and adjustable angle plate.  The scales are mostly “good enough” for what I do, not much call for gauges.  Occasionally handy.
  • quickly set items at an angle in a machine vice with reasonable accuracy.  Occasionally handy.
• Others do precision work, perhaps lots of it, and in a hurry.  For them inexpensive gauges are unlikely to be fit for purpose or value for money:
  • Untrustworthy without a calibration certificate.
  • When high-accuracy is essential, angles can’t be assumed correct unless the gauges are parallel and true on all faces as well as angle correct.  Work is delayed when gauge shortcomings have to be understood and compensated.  When time is money, it’s worth paying more for tools.

Cheap tools are best avoided when precision is vital, and this applies to second-hand tools just as much as new ones. Everything has to be right when accuracy and precision really matter, and difficult to prove outside a properly equipped facility.  No second-hand micrometer, surface table, jo-block set, or any other metrology equipment is trustworthy unless it’s been calibrated.  Problem is brand-names do not protect against wear and tear!  A tenths micrometer that was fine yesterday could be miles off today.  All the owner has to do is drop it onto a concrete floor!

Model Engineering being a hobby makes pride of ownership a valid reason for spending money.  If buying expensive tools and traditional brands makes you happy, go for it.   It’s not engineering though because wasting money is a sin!

Dave

On 21 January 2026 at 11:18 not done it yet Said:

Dave,

I agree with what you said but…

 

I don’t buy from the sub-standard/stack ‘em high/reject merchants unless:

1)  I am confident it will do the job required,

2)  I am confident I can fix any short-comings, or

3)  I can afford to throw it away!

…Personally, I prefer to buy once, not twice.  That means ‘middle-of-the-road’ or better.  Good quality items, bought second hand, can be far better than cheap chinese.  …

 

Well, we’re trying to manage the risk of buying tools that aren’t “Fit for Purpose”.  I suggest buyers do better by thinking about their needs rather than generalising.    Ask what could possibly go wrong AND what can be done to mitigate it?

When buying tools Model Engineers have three main sources, each with pros and cons:

1. New from an industrial supplier.  Pro:  Well-made to a specification and reliable.  Con: EXPENSIVE.  New members sometimes intend going this route, but abandon the idea on seeing the prices!
2. Secondhand from an industrial supplier. Pro: might be as good as new and considerably cheaper.  Con:  Depends on condition.  Secondhand is a gamble.   And, because the item is secondhand, the purchasers rights are reduced.   In particular, buying at an exhibition the buyer has few rights because he actually saw the product.   Risk of wasting money is reduced by distance buying regulations, but the buyer could lose out if the item is unsatisfactory.   Much depends on the seller:  some are fly-by-night or fraudsters.
3. New from a hobby supplier or box shifter.  Pro:  New and affordable. Money protected by warranty and consumer protection.  Con.  Not necessarily well-made.  What arrives anything from cheap and nasty up to industrial grade.  Box Shifters and Marketplace sellers like  Vevor, Amazon and Bangood unlikely to provide technical support.  Buyer responsible for understanding the manual.

With respect the idea of “buy once not twice” is suspect.  Made sense before consumer and distance selling protection, back when buying too cheap left the purchaser in the lurch.  Too cheap was a major problem before manufacturing developed ways of making mid-range products.

When buying tools was a risky investment, it paid to go upmarket.  Not so today, because times have changed!  Now most products are “mid-range”, and when new products are unsatisfactory, they are replaced or money back.  The purchase is low risk.

I suggest hobbyists think carefully about their needs. Most of us I suspect are light users, not flogging tools, working against the clock, or working to high-precision.   Fun and interest rather than production.

Factors:

• wide availability of affordable mid-range tools “good-enough” for several years work in a moderately busy workshop.  Cheap enough to be considered consumables rather than investments.  Why spend more?
• purchases protected by money back/replace are low risk. Protecting purchases by buying upmarket is usually unnecessary.
• new industrial is very expensive.
• second-hand is financially risky if the item is in poor condition.

Main reason for buying new industrial is reliability:  it works out of the box when time is of the essence and has a longer life than inexpensive alternatives.   If I were equipping a ship where a critical repair might have to be made at sea, I wouldn’t risk discovering an unopened set of Bangood Angle Gauges were no good.   But the same set at home would be checked on arrival and rejected if necessary, thus saving me lots of dosh.

May I warn against quality issues on internet comment.  Emma’s 8 year old video is a sample of one and she doesn’t say the product is useless.  Or that everything sold by Bangood is untrustworthy.  My Angle gauge set came from China via ArcEuro and doesn’t have the defects Emma detected.  My advice, don’t take generalised conclusions too seriously, especially if the advice isn’t evidenced.  For example:  NDIY says:  My secondhand Britool socket set (very old, now) is still far better quality than most chinese offerings.  What’s the evidence for that then?  China make a lot of spanners!  What did Britool do that can’t be emulated by any other spanner maker who chooses to go up-market?  Spanners aren’t rocket science!

Dave

High quality, professional grade equipment costs. Not surprising, given the material, treatments, and attention given during manufacture.

Recently, I donated my father’s 7/16″ hexagon drive socket set to the Water Works Museum. It dated from the 30s and was used by my father and, to a lesser extent, by myself, to produce an income. ONE socket showed signs of wear and replaced, in the 70s! Still useable.

A cheap socket set soon required replacements.

But even high cost  supposedly quality items can be sub standard.

A torque spanner from what is regarded as the highest quality tool supplier, in an industrial trial, was far inferior to the Britool torque wrenches being used!

My superbly accurate torque spanner?  A simple cheapie, checked repeated on several different calibration meters, and always accurate!

Choose carefully; for hobby use, “middle of the road” will often suffice, and be affordable.

“The bitter taste of poor quality long outlasts the thrill of low price”

Cheap might well need regular replacement, professional may never wear out, but near bankrupt you.

Don’t expect a £700 mini lathe to perform as well, or reliably, or to last as long as a toolroom machine costing forty times as much.

Choose carefully!

Howard

One of my favourite ‘up-market’ tools [purchased very cheaply at a car-boot sale] is this ratcheting screwdriver:

It only does what the cheap ones do … but in every little detail it does it better !

Patent available here: https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search?q=pn%3DUS4777852A

use the 3-dot menu to download the document.

MichaelG.