What kind of miter box do I want for doing house trim?

[EricU]

I did a batch of trim with a plastic Stanley miter box, and as bad as that sounds, I really liked it, and I enjoyed doing trim work. But it was obvious that a real miter box would be a lot nicer. What should I look for in a box?

[Bill_Houghton]

It's hard to beat the Millers-Falls Langdon Acme box, its Goodell-Pratt siblings*, the similar Stanleys or other similar brands. Other similar brands: For a while, I had a Marsh-Ayers box nearly identical to a M-F box. It was missing one leg set. Before I found my M-F box, I was going to make a wooden leg set for that end and a little label "Marsh-Ahab."

What these boxes have in common is front and back posts with saw carriers that slide in or on the posts for keeping the saw firmly in line; which posts are attached to a pivoting carriage on the saw frame, allowing your miters, including fine adjustment (off standard angles) for those out of square corners. The whole thing is heavily built, with just enough play/clearance to allow movement but not enough to allow wobbles.

With my M-F box, I can trim a saw kerf's worth of wood from many moldings, allowing for a truly tight fit.

You also need a straight, sharp saw. The saws that fit in these boxes are usually 24-26".

Shop around at yard/estate sales or anteek mauls, mostly. You can buy from eBay, but the shipping's usually pretty steep.

You should also learn to cope your inside corners, particularly for interior trim. This doesn't work for all molding patterns, but, where it does, you can get corners that won't open up like miters can do.
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*which differ mainly in that the "bed" is riveted steel rather than cast iron. These can twist if they're on a twisted surface, but, if bolted down to a firm, flat surface like a chunk of thick plywood, are just fine and pretty much functionally identical to the M-F boxes.

[Blacky's Boy]

I have a large Stanley 2853A that I use alongside of it's smaller brother (purchased from Admiral). I cleaned and sharpened the saw and absolutely loved using it on my family room instead of my 10" Delta CMS. MUCH quieter and as accurate as I would want.

[EricU]

thanks for all the tips. Coping is nearly mandatory if using one of the little plastic boxes. I'm a little lazy about getting out shopping, and this area is known for tool hoarders, not tool sellers.

[JimBelair]

If you're not able to track down a vintage model, I have this one and am happy with it. For softwood trim, consider a coarser blade than the standard one.



http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.as...&cat=1,42884

[Admiral]

I have the 1930's version of what Blacky's Boy has, any Stanley or MF box works great. I've put up $6k of millwork in my house with it, but you still have to cope to get tight joints. Thing about miter boxes, you have to be able to sharpen the saw, but they are dead balls accurate and a pleasure to use, and quiet, less of a mess than chop saws and just takes a little more time, but not much.

Check out the old Stanley catalogs at Issac's site, Blackburn tools, which will give you an idea of the levels of boxes out there. Be patient when looking for one.

[DaveParkis]

Do you ever come to Albany? I have 3 or 4 miter boxes and saws I could sell you.

[Admiral]

Eric, take up Dave on his offer! He's got the real deal in boxes.

[Steve N]

A good miter box as already described has been responsible for a couple of Centuries of home trim work in the USA, and a lot more over the pond. You'll have today's hot shots say you NEED a powered miter saw. Of course they work in MDF trim, and fill the expansive cracks and gaps with bondo before painting

I'm mostly stirring up a pot of.......

Seriously an older Stanley or MF in good shape will do the work. The modern day era version that Jim pointed out actually can be more accurate than a 1500 buck Festool miter box. So many moving parts in the powered ones, it's hard to keep all that motion consistently going the right direction. Thing is like everything else, you need to learn how to use the beer powered miter boxes to the best advantage. Cut lots of scrap pine before setting after the 6" Walnut

[Bill_Houghton]

One other comment I wanted to make is that hand powered boxes are great with Victorian and Edwardian trim, where you often find crowns above doors and windows, with mitered returns. The returns are about two inches long, max, and it's a lot easier to cut one of those on a hand powered box and actually be able to find it when the cut's done, than it would be to do so on an electron-burner, which would tend to fling a little part like that into the weeds.