Who’s ever thought: “the problem with this T-square is that it doesn’t do any angles other than 90?” While that might sound absurd, the idea evidently has some merit. Woodpeckers just released a new one-time tool — the Posi-Lock T-square — a T-square with an adjustable angle head.
This new T-square has an adjustable head that can set from 0 to 70° in either direction. What’s more is that it has positive angle stops every 5°, plus at 22-1/2° and 67-1/2°, using precisely machines holes and a spring-loaded indexing ball. If you need a different angle, you can still lock the blade between detents.
The blade is made from stainless steel with a satin finish, and the head is made from Woodpeckers’ classic red-anodized aluminum.
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The blade has scribing notches every 1/16″ along the blade and a laser etched scale in increments of 1/32″ on both edges. The total tolerance over the length of the blade is ± .004″.
Woodpeckers will be selling three Posi-Lock T-Squares, in 12″, 24″, and 32″ sizes. The 12″ version is $130, the 24″ is $150, and the 32″ is $170. They are also selling a set with all three T-squares for $440.
Each square comes with a wall-mountable “Rack-It” holder.
The order deadline for these square is January 6th, 2020 and delivery is scheduled for April (but could change).
Price: $130 – $170 ($440 combo)
Order Deadline: 1/6/20
Discussion
I think this adjustable angle T-square is a great addition to their line-up, and it’s disappointing that they are making it a one-time tool.
Having a really large and accurate protractor would come in handy for laying out certain projects. I’ve used the protractor heads for combination squares before and find them sorely lacking. Trying to line up the proper angle is tedious at best and on many of the cheaper versions you’re lucky if the scale has been calibrated within 2°.
fred says
I ordered the 32 inch one via Woodcraft (they list it as 36 inch – probably a typo) this morning – same price – but free shipping.
https://www.woodcraft.com/products/onetime-tool-posi-lock-t-square-36-inch-woodpeckers
Jim Felt says
fred.
I’m curious why you selected this particular length?
And BTW thanks for your insight on the shipping option.
fred says
I picked the longest – thinking it would cover the largest panel I’m likely to cut. Maybe a 24 inch might have been better especially if some inaccuracy creeps in with a longer arm.
In any event – I’m hoping that it is easier to set than my Starrett 52516 protractor head. The quandary with buying these One-Time-Tools is that neither you nor other users have had a chance to handle one – so without experience or reviews by others – you are buying sight-unseen. It may still beat using my tangent tables to calculate right triangle legs – although I recall that 3-5/8 and 8-3/4 inches will lay out a 22-1/2 degree angle
Nathan says
That’s fairly reasonable especially from them. I mean considering if it is actually accurate, and I have no reason to believe it isn’t. Then it does take a bit of work to maintain that accuracy across a range. I’m sure the head is CNC machined to 0.0003 or such to help with that so the price is reasonable.
I might get the 24 inch and it would be my first woodpeckers tool.
However I will say I’ve had good luck with my PEC combination square and it’s protractor head. I got it cheap from Harry Epstein but still expensive enough.
Matt says
I noticed their one time tools are no longer offered in metric. I purchase a lot of their one time tools, but I didn’t purchase the last few and I won’t be purchasing this one because it isn’t offered in metric. Why has metric disappeared from the line up?
Another issue with their one time tools that can be frustrating is their “expected ship dates.” The last few tools I purchased their expected ship date was missed by months! This really stinks if you intended to give to someone as a present.
Ben V says
Every time they do non-metric tools I drop them an email to express my request. They do keep a track of these things, so hopefully they’ll see there is demand!
A lot more of their tools are becoming permanent stock items this year, so they might be just using OneTimeTools to test the waters with a tighter audience.
Ben
Matt says
Thank you. I actually dropped them an email already.
Drew M says
Positive angle stops every 5°
Too bad they weren’t clever enough to add vernier stops for angles. Then you could have postive stops for essentially every angle.
Oh well. Maybe on the next version.
Koko The Talking Ape says
That red portion seems surprisingly thick, maybe 1/2″ or more. I suppose it has to have space for the balls and springs, but even so, it seems to be overkill. It surely isn’t a solid aluminum billet, is it?
Also, these fellows seem difficult to make accurately. Are the balls fixed to a leaf spring? If they are riding in holes with coil springs, the holes have to be super-accurately sized (big enough to allow the balls to slide up and down, but small enough to prevent slop.)
ca says
I’m also wondering about the accuracy of the angle setting. Sure they talk about the tolerance of the blade being 4 thousandths… but who cares for wood working? However, a small error in the setting of the angle gives a large error at the end of the blade. If the angle detents truly are accurate, I would consider paying this otherwise exorbitant price.
Nathan says
you’ll notice most of their AL based rulers and squares tend to have a thicker base body. Reasoning is that AL has quite a bit of resilaince so to minimize deflection over the face and to maintain accuracy once milled it’s a good idea to have more material there.
That same head milled out of say base steel or SS could be thinner to maintain the same dimensional stability. Also the larger size helps with holding edges of materials and the like. So it’s also functional.
I also assume their detent ball rides on a fail safe coil spring. but that’s an assumption.
Adam says
Cool idea. Wish they would make it in a less accurate (ie less expensive) version. Sure if a $40 unit was made, it would still be accurate enough for most of us
Tom D says
Wait until China is making knockoffs. They’ll be cheaper AND less accurate!
gene says
you do realize that bridge city manufactures all it’s global market tools in China?
fred says
Sure
The rumor was that they were struggling to stay afloat – or that John Economaki had had enough. Anyway for whatever reasons n their “licensing partner” in China (Harvey Industries) bought them out last year.
gene says
yup. the manufacturing deals remain in place for now. Their stuff is really good but hella expensive. I just never bought into any of this stuff.
Arlan says
Bridge City……….Whatever. I was a fan, customer, and stock owner a couple decades ago before they went down the first time. My healthy investment in stock went to $0.00. Never any acknowledgement or effort to make it right with former investors.
No longer a customer or fan.
Diplomatic Immunity says
Something I’d actually want in that it looks very useful although I’m not sure what size I’d want. Hopefully it gets enough traction to where they make it a regular production model.
Robert Adkins says
Looks great, I could find a lot of uses for it. And,,, Woodpeckers makes good stuff. They know it too, as you can tell by the prices.