Rant: Finally caved and tried a digital protractor after swearing by my old swing arm one

I've been drafting for about 12 years now and always figured my old swing arm protractor was fine. Last week I had a commercial job in downtown Portland measuring some weird angles for a steel stair stringer. After getting it wrong twice and burning maybe 2 hours, my buddy handed me his digital one. I was all 'nah I don't need that fancy stuff'. But I tried it out of desperation. First try it was dead on. Felt kinda dumb but also kinda glad. Anyone else stubborn about switching tools then get proven wrong by a specific job?

2 comments

2 Comments

bennett.mason10d ago

...wait, wait. You're telling me you fought it for 12 years? Twelve? That's wild man. I mean I get being loyal to a tool but that's like... that's like driving a car from 2012 and insisting it's fine until your buddy's Tesla shows you what a backup camera is. I had a similar thing with my old speed square, kept using it for rafter angles even though I was always a little off. Then my buddy let me try his digital one on a job last fall, a real tricky hip roof situation, and I felt like an absolute fool for not switching sooner. That first read was so clean I almost dropped the thing.

nancythomas10d ago

Can't believe you stuck with that square for 12 years! How do you even do that?