Adam Savage's Favorite Tools: Angle Finder!

Adam shares a critical woodworking tool that is also a relatively inexpensive piece of kit! A cheat $3 angle finder helps you match an exact angle of any part you're working with to another piece of material, whether it's wood, plastic, or metal. And if you can find one, Adam loves his antique cast steel angle finder, called the Angulus!

Shot by Adam Savage and edited by Norman Chan

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#AdamSavage #FavoriteTools

[TheZanger]

I have the exact same “angulus”. It was my grandfather’s who passed away some years ago and along with some of his other tools, it now sits in my toolbox. It still smells like my grandfather’s shop, probably because he used to use a lot of grease and oil to keep his tools in shape. As a young man he started his career as a blacksmith working on trains here in Belgium and he truly was a maker. He kept making things right up to the end and I learned a lot from him.

[melonsodagirl]

"A tool that you wanna use, is a tool you're gonna use."

These are words I live by!

[hingemachine]

My father, who was a lifelong carpenter passed a couple years ago. It has been really therapeutic to work with his tools in so many ways. His steel angle finder was in the first handful of things I wanted to make sure we kept, because he held it so often.

[jparmy]

Also called a sliding bevel if you’re searching for one

[ducatistas]

Hey Adam. Love your videos. I just came to have use for a c. 1920's lawn roller (its a forged steel beast) thats been in the woods on my property for decades. The square bung was completely rust welded on, and of some mild steel that doesn't take a tool well. At a local antique tool store I picked up a "bung wrench", date-stamped 1927. I was able to hammer it onto the bung, chiseling a new edge to torque on, attach a cheat pipe to it and finally get this bolt loose. The wrench? Its patina'd... it shows absolutely no signs of me having beaten it to death with a hammer or it having chiseled its way to making a new nut. Its from a time when American steel was something to behold. I LOVE this tool. It even has a pin hole in the base of the handle to gain leverage when turning the mechanism to release something like a bung nut wedged into a wrench that was hammered onto it!

[gainmarklain]

I’m a builder in the Marine corps, I have a tool room and I have that, never known what it was, inventoried it countless times, struggled with angles, this video sparked a gigantic smile on my face and I can’t wait to go back to work to show my guys what I just learned!! Thank you Adam, always resourceful

[MrGrimsmith]

We have a few but my favourite has to be the one that belonged to my great grandfather - oiled rosewood, stainless steel and brass. Part of his cabinet making tools we still have, including the toolbox he made to keep them in. Treat them well and good tools are heirlooms :)

[ivarmh]

I inherited one from my grandfather. Not only is it an excellent tool for my workshop but it also serves as a reminder good childhood memories 😁

[tiacho]

I have two, My larger one is the modern Japanese version of the Angulus made by Shinwa out of aluminum/steel (I love having the knob at the end). The smaller one I ended up making myself. To say that I use them a lot is a gross understatement.

[MCsCreations]

I totally agree, Adam! 😊
Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[paintball]

I collect old adjustable wrenches haha... its so easy to get a long forgotten, old, gunked up wrench from the flea market, spend 10-20 minutes cleaning it up and you have yourself a 100% fully functional piece of history. And like you said, they're always super cheap

[mthompson]

I'd call that a sliding t-bevel....an "angle finder" would actually have a scale or digital readout and give you the actual angle in whatever units it is designed for.

[MrGlennJohnsen]

My uncle taught me how to do this with a carpenter's folding ruler, simply make a triangle where two sides is your angle and the third side gives you a point of referance to remake the angle somewhere else.

One "best bang/buck" tool I always recommend is a Shinto rasp. Wonderful for hand-shaping wood and for <$30 it really can't be beat.

[afbailey]

0:45 the combination square with the protractor head can do the same thing as the angle finder -- but combination squares with all the attachments are typically a lot more expensive. Many people don't know about the other attachments for the combination square, all of which are very useful.

[HectaSpyrit]

ANGULUS ! I summon you, come to me !
I'm just imagining Adam in his shop extending his arm to his side and calling his angle finder to him, like Thor summoning his hammer.

[matthewcarpenter]

I just used my cheap version last weekend while making a decorative fence! Probably one on the first wood working tools I ever purchased new. I think I found it at one of those "dollar stores" when they first started to become common placed.
I've used it numerous times and it has not failed me yet.

[dodgecukc]

I think it feels special to think of all the jobs an old tool was used on, all the hours of care and attention someone gave their projects with that tool. Or in my case used to hastily bodge together something

[BBQ_kevin]

I have one for woodworking. So glad I got one when we were building our cottage. So many angles

[PeterPetersNL]

I have inherited an Angulus from my dad. He was a welder and black smith.

It's called a "zwaaihaak" in Dutch. As in "wavehook". The arm waves at you.