Mintlp

It is ASSUMING the cantilever is square to the front of the cart body. The beauty of the mint is that it allow you to align relative to the cantilever not the body. Also you need to get the cantilever square AFTER getting the overhang correct along the entire arc. Its not as simple as just aligning the cantilever square to the grid lines.

Spend some time and bond with your protractor ;-)

As Swampwalker sez, trace the arc first, and then worry about offset angle.

Cheers,
Thom

Ditto! You probably won't be off that much once you get the arm and the protractor in the correct positions. It sounds like most likely you haven't learned how to do this important step with an arc-style protractor. As Swampwalker and Thom say, you need to get the arc tracing correct first.

To do that you will need to move both the protractor and arm until your stylus is hitting the arc at the extreme outside edge and as close to the spindle as possible. Once you have that done you will have found the place to lock down the protractor. It is all in the directions. Read them again, be sure you understand, take your time.

Definitely to the above and in addition to Yip's excellent instructions there are even more user tips and testimoials in the archives,
I believe Stringreens thread titled Mint Tractor.

I just purchased quite a few Mint LP protractors to cover all of my turntable/tonearm combinations. The expenditure was significant but not nearly as significant as the performance increase attributable to them.

More importantly if the Mint LP protractors are correct, and I believe they are after listening, not a single manufacturer's protractor/jig supplied with their tonearm is accurate. Some are close but others are not.

The point is if you've invested in a decent table and tonearm, you'd be foolish not to spend another $100 or so and ensure proper alignment.

This device is a no brainer IMO.