Up Your Carpentry and DIY Game With the Best Digital Protractors

Finding Your Next Digital Protractor: A Buyer’s Guide

When you’re making something from scratch, especially something that requires carpentry or engineering skills, you’re going to need the most accurate and reliable tools you can find. In this day and age, almost all of these tools have digital counterparts that are a lot more efficient than traditional versions.

Digital protractors, for example, have become increasingly accurate over time. Thanks to modern technology, they have reduced human error and made it possible to measure angles as precisely as possible using digital displays. But considering how many products are available in this space, it can be easy to get confused, especially if you’re inexperienced. So, check out this guide on how to make an informed purchase when you’re out looking for one of these products.

Benefits of Using Digital Protractors

Accuracy

Whether you’re working on a painting, a sculpture, a desk, a bookshelf, or an architectural blueprint, you need to keep your measurements as accurate as possible — especially when it comes to carpentry and architecture. Even the slightest mistake while taking measurements can lead to big consequences. With digital protractors, you don’t need to recheck or doubt your measurements.

Reliability

Regardless of how good you are at your profession, you aren’t immune to human error. In fields where accuracy is extremely important, reliability comes in a close second. You could be accurate with all but one of your measurements, and just a single mistake can make an entire project a failure. Using digital protractors, you increase your chances of consistently accurate results by helping eliminate human error.

Things to Consider When Choosing Digital Protractors

Range

Digital protractors have a range of measurement either between 0 and 180 degrees or between 0 and 360 degrees. 360-degree protractors may seem like a better option, but that isn’t always the case. If you’re measuring an area where you know the angle doesn’t exceed 180 degrees, a 360-degree protractor is almost useless and much more likely to give inaccurate measurements.

Length

The length of a protractor’s arm won’t affect its range of measurement, but it will affect its accuracy. Protractors with shorter arms are more prone to giving inaccurate measurements, and versions with longer arms are more accurate because it’s easier to line them up with the measurement. The downside of longer versions, however, is that they can be annoying to store and carry.

Battery life

Digital protractors, as the name suggests, run on batteries or some other kind of electric power. Fortunately, most of them have replaceable batteries, which means that all you need is backup batteries to use your measuring tool on the go. You don’t want to be replacing the batteries too often though. So you should go for digital protractors with lower power usage.

Easy-to-read display

There’s no point in investing in a digital protractor for its accuracy if you’re still going to get inaccurate readings from errors while reading the display. A bigger, well-lit, and easy-to-read LED display on your tool can help you see your measurements clearly.

Additional features

If you’re going for a model with added features that can make measuring things even more convenient, you might want to look for protractors featuring a locking highlight, which locks the device’s arms at the required angle. Other desirable features include angle-memory storage and a rotating display.