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Cheap protractor

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albertorc19

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Joined
Nov 28, 2009
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I recently purchased this protractor at dx.com, it costs $26.50 USD with free delivery around the world. I think that here applies that of "you get what you pay for". This instrument is just OK for my shop, the quality is not comparable with a Starrett's, I had to make a few fixes before using it, the case is very fragile and I already broke one corner. The Vernier scale looks fine but the engraving doesn't look like something that will last for ages.
Overall it was a good deal for me, no store in Mexico would sell this item this cheap and a purchase on eBay would have added about $35.00 USD just for S&H.

Any advice about how to best use this instrument is most welcome.

This store is also a good place for cheap Vernier calipers and other instruments. I think I've seen dial calipers for as low as ten dollars.

P1380625.JPG
 
Hi , I bought one of these too. I find it most useful round my Seig X3.
I am curious as to the fixes that you did.
Cheers,
Kerry from Oz
 
Hi , I bought one of these too. I find it most useful round my Seig X3.
I am curious as to the fixes that you did.
Cheers,
Kerry from Oz

Kerry, I am still trying to get my head around what you use these things for. What sort of thing do you use it on your mill for? I have the SX3 mill.
 
Hi , I bought one of these too. I find it most useful round my Seig X3.
I am curious as to the fixes that you did.
Cheers,
Kerry from Oz

One of the knobs in my protractor was badly bent so I used a small collet to straight it up and that was it. I also had to clean a lot of the protective grease.
I also found a "how to" picture about the many measurements you can make with this particular instrument it turned out to be six or seven more than the ones I first though. The design is Russian.
 
Hi fellow modelers.
I don't have the luxury of either a Mitutoyo or Starret angle ruler combination so I purchased this one.It can be used for setting angles from different reference planes or points and marking out. I have produced some images to demonstrate.
Cheers,
Kerry from Oz
PS I hope images arrive

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Now that looks like a pretty handy tool, for when you don't need the accuracy of sine bars but more accurate than "that looks about right".
Gonna get me one of those Thm:
 
I haven't calibrated this protractor so I'm not in the positition of making a statement about its accuracy but based only on its resolution I think this can be quite accurate since it has a Vernier scale with a 2 minute resolution. It may not have the accuracy of the sine bar but it's close and yes, I think every model engineer should have one.
I've attached an image describing several uses for this instrument.
Kerry from Oz: nice photos :)

ProtractorBW.jpg
 
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