Homemade Protractor Homemade Woodworking Tools

Having broken or scratched to the point of unreadability my share of plastic protractors, I thought I would make my own. After a quick search online, I found a printable protractor that I resized to fit on a self adhesive half sheet label:

Radius laid out with the compass.

After it was printed I checked to make sure that it was accurate by measuring the radius. A slight error would not have an impact on the accuracy. My print is nearly perfect.

I then cut it out and stuck it onto a piece of 1/4″ plywood, being careful to line it up exactly with the edge:

Prep the stock for the leaves.
Cut to length.

To keep it clean and in good shape, I sprayed on a coat of lacquer to protect it.

Finished, and ready for fun angle measuring action:

Radius laid out with the compass.

Having the vertex of the angle right at the edge makes measuring angles from a t-bevel easy and accurate with this protractor. If the scale gets too beat up, I can always scrape it off and stick on new one.
I have found that having it shaped like this makes it easier to hold while measuring an angle off the t-bevel. I made a hole to hang it up when I’m not using it.