This article will review the Klein Tools Digital Angle Gauge & Level 935DAG. As a full disclosure, Klein Tools was kind enough to send me a product sample of the digital angle gauge at no cost to me and as always I will provide my honest unbiased feedback. I am not paid or swayed in any way to give a positive review.
The Klein Tools Digital Angle Gauge is a neat little electronic tool to give you accurate angle readings on the spot. Its very small and portable making it pocketable and its LCD display gives you instant angle readings on the fly. The LCD is also backlit at all times meaning it can easily be read in low light and the negative black background display means it should be easy to read outside in a bright day.
The bottom of the device is magnetic meaning it can stick to most metal surfaces and each side of the angle gauge has a groove that makes it easy to mount on pipes such as conduit.
The angle gauge doubles as a level. When the display reaches 0 degrees, it indicates that the surface on which it rests is level.
The operation is quite simple as theres only two buttons with the left button being the power on/off button and to zero out the gauge (more on that in a moment) and the right button holds whatever info is on the screen which is convenient to hold an angle measurement and jot down even after its away from the surface.
The zero function is great function for calibrating saws like table saws and miter saws. Let’s say you have a portable tablesaw and the surface is not perfect. You want to tilt your blade 45 degrees. It is easy to do this. Simply place the angle gauge on top of the table saw table table surface. This will most likely not be at 0 degrees. The zero button will take care of this. Then you can stick the angle gauge on the side of the blade and tilt until the gauge says 45 degrees and the 45 degree angle will be relative to the table top surface.
As far as accuracy is concerned, I put it against my trusted Empire level by placing the Empire level on a level surface and getting the dial as centered as possible. The Klein digital gauge was placed on top of the Empire-level. It showed 0.02 degrees, which is very close. Under the same setup I tilted the Empire level until the Klein was at a perfect 0.00 degrees level. The bubble on the dial was at the perfect level when the Klein was perfectly level. It was still within the lines of the center and the left lines, but it was closer to the left. Hard for me to tell which of the two is the more accurate level but they are both very close.
I also like that the display of the Klein shows a single flat line when its perfectly at 0.00 degrees level and the line turns into two lines at a pivot point as soon as the gauge reports anything over 0.00 degrees which lets you know in which direction the angle is favoring. The display will automatically compensate if the gauge is upside down. This means that the readings will be right side up. The unit must be upside down, but not sideways. Also make sure the gauge is always standing up, if it ever gets tilted forward or backwards such as placing the gauge on its back, it will get an err (error) message.
The housing is made of strong plastic, which makes it very sturdy. The only problem I have with the LCD display is the thin plastic film that it covers. Im afraid that this plastic film will do very little to protect the display and might be prone to scratches. Klein should have used a thick, durable plastic lens. Plastic lenses can still scratch but at least I wouldnt have to worry that the display would get damaged if the gauge landed on the corner of a hard object.
Overall the Klein Tools digital angle gauge is a very useful little tool for accurate angle readings on the spot. This digital angle gauge is great for finding angles. It also works well for calibrating powersaws such as table and miter saws. The grooves on the sides makes it perfect for placing on top of pipe like conduit. The only problem I have with the display film is its thinness and inability to protect the LCD screen from direct impact. It’s a great tool, and it’s priced right at
DISCLOSURE:
