Ah. Now I see where you are heading... I have a small tool I bought at Lowes and a large one I made myself.
The tool at Lowes is called a bevel scale. Basically it is a thin piece of metal with a slot in it. There is a handle made of wood or plastic that the metal piece fits in. When it is stored everything is tucked in the handle except for about 2 inches or so. There is a knurled knob that tightens to hold the angle. To find the angle you loosen the knob, pull the metal piece out of the handle and the handle becomes 1 side of the angle and the metal piece can be moved around until you have the other side of the angle. Just tighten the knob and it will give you the angle you just set and you can carry the tool to the bench or where ever you need it. Seeing as you are going to use this on something pretty large, you can make your own to do the same thing but the larger size will make sure you can account for the span as far across the roof as you want. I took 2 pieces of Plexiglas and actually cut them on the table saw so they were about 2 inches wide. You could probably talk the folks at the orange or blue boxes out of a couple pieces of scraps... Lay the 2 pieces on top of each other and drill a hole through 1 end of both pieces about an inch or 2 from the ends. Take a machine screw, number 10 or larger just so it won't work its way through the Plexiglas and crack it. Put a washer, I used fender washers because of the width. Put 1 on each side and 1 between the 2 legs of Plexiglas. Use a wing nut to tighten the screw and now you have a large model bevel scale. You can hold 1 leg vertically and the other can run across the roof line to get your outside angles. once you get that part done you can lay the tubes on the floor and find the cross member angles. They have tools available to cut the fish mouth in the ends of the round tubes so the tube will fit nice and tight against the sides. If it doesn't work for you at least you're only out about 2 dollars... The tool from Lowes sells for around 10. I know there are some other models out there but the ones I've actually seen won't help you with what you are doing because they are pretty small in size and you could be off by several degrees in the end. That will cause much preaching and carrying on when you start to weld. And now you have the reason for that mig welder! ----- Original Message ----- From: Larry Stansifer To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2007 10:34 PM Subject: RE: [BlindHandyMan] Accessible angle gage I have a chop saw what I am looking for is something that I can use to measure the angles inside the body shell and transfer those measurements to my saw or tubing bender. I have a couple of ideas and will probably see what I can't mouse together. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bob Kennedy Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2007 7:13 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Accessible angle gage How are you planning to cut the tubing? I took a power miter saw and put an abrasive blade in it that will cut through steel. I can get the most common angles just like in wood. As for a tool that is accessible for one of us to read, I still haven't found one and I've been looking for a while. For that matter I haven't found one for anyone that I can adapt. I know there are a bunch on line but unless I grab hold of them I'm not interested because anyone can write an ad that makes it sound like it will do anything and even wash the dishes after the party. But they never work that well... ----- Original Message ----- From: Larry Stansifer To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2007 8:23 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Accessible angle gage Hi guys, I am needing to measure a number of fairly precise angles plus or minus 5 degrees. Are you aware of any off the shelf measuring devices that will handle this task? I am laying out a scratch built roll-cage and 2.5" 4130 chrome-mahley tubing doesn't bend particularly well so it is going to have to be precisely cut and fit for the most part. 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