CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Preview: The Angle Snap

Toolmonger:



"C. H. Hanson, manufacturer of the Chalk Hog, now offers something called the Angle Snap — a chalk line jig designed to simplify complex layout on sheet goods like plywood, sheet rock, or OSB. With built in positive stops for fast placement on edges and corners, it works with any standard chalk line to mark angles simply and accurately."

4 comments:

dmxwidget said...

This is a great idea. I am surprised that no one has thought of this before, or nobody ever thought to make a full product out of it. This would be a handy thing to have in shops that need specific angles. In the theatre world, it might be less useful because we usually are not cutting very precise angles, such as 32 degrees.

Anonymous said...

I am so surprised this does not already exist. How awesome. I really want one. Now that i think about some of the more strange angular cutouts that I have done this tool makes a lot of sense. Before, using squares and other straight edges made things somewhat of a pain. This tool just makes me happy.

BWard said...

these posts of new tools get me thinking about how i can do this using what we already have in the shop. sure, an edge/corner aligning angle gauge would be neat to have, but then it's one more thing that nobody'll use after a week or two.

And i'll have to disagree with our lampie friend, in theatre strange angles are pretty common... Ever cut crossbraces for platforms, stair units, or benches??? Ever have to cut 30 of them identically?

Derek said...

Well it seems like it could be useful, but a a speed square will already get you the angle, and this tool has the same problem as the speed square, but actually makes it worse. This tool appears to intend for you to put one end of the chalk line in the tool so that it holds the end for you as it holds onto the side or conrer of the board. But if you are 15-20 feet away, how are you supposed to read that angle on the angle snap, or the speed square for that matter. So really what you need is to be able to put the end of the chalk line where you want the line to start, and then have your angle snap helping ou 20 feet away. I guess you can do this, but then its not really much different than a speed square except its a half circle instead of a triangle.