Miter trimmer surface treatment
#10
I know what to do when I want cast iron to be slippery: I wax it. But what do you do if you want a certain amount of friction, and to prevent rust?

I got a Dosch miter trimmer today, and have completely disassembled it. Once it's reassembled, it should look like this one on the vintagemachinery website:

I don't want the cast iron to rust, so I'd wax it except that it might become slippery enough for the stock to slip while trimming, which would ruin the accuracy that is the reason for this thing. Perhaps beeswax would be just sticky enough.

Does anyone who uses one of these have any comments? Perhaps I'm worried over nothing, or perhaps there's a simple solution. Maybe I should have left it rusty.


Historical info:
The patent for miter trimmers was issued in 1900 to Peter Dosch of Mt. Vernon, NY. He then started the Pootatuck company that manufactured Lion trimmers. Some time later the company passed down to two cousins who apparently both wanted to be in charge, since both then ran companies producing the same type of trimmer with the same patent number in the casting: one ran Pootatuck, making the Lion trimmer (the company much later changed its name to Lion), and the the other cousin ran the Dosch Manufacturing company. Each has since ceased production.

Dosch trimmers of very similar design were produced, with Dosch Mfg. company address in Bridgeport, CT, or Thornton (Del. Co) PA, or Union, NJ, or Paterson, NJ. If someone knew when they were at various addresses, it would become possible to date these better. They were in Paterson when the manual at the link was printed in the 1960's. My trimmer is from Thornton, PA.
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#11
Unless your tools are prone to rusting I would just clean it up and leave it alone. The bed has striations in it from milling so that should keep the stock from sliding. I have one and they work very well. Put up all the molding in the house using that. takes slivers off.
John T.
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#12
I have one (love it, the Dosch doesn't get mentioned much) and I think you're worried about nothing. Mine doesn't get used all that much, and it sits on a shelf in the shop. Had it for 7 years and haven't had a problem with rust, though I did have to clean it up after I bought it. I do agree that a coating of wax would make it work less well.
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
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#13
Many of my tools rust easily down here in Texas because of the humidity. Best thing I can do is keep the tool covered when not in use. That seems to help a lot here
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#14
Thanks all. I will just reassemble and use it without doing anything to the surface.
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#15
Camellia oil, I use it on my planes all the time; light coat, works great.

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/camel...100ml.aspx
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#16
I have a Lion Miter Trimmer (the real thing and not a copy) too. Your's looks like the real thing but mine does not have the red wings.

I never felt a need for any coating. I store mine in the basement and it never seems to rust. The blade draws the material against the stop and the material does not move about much. If I wanted frictions I guess I would just stick down some adhesive backed sandpaper (I have rolls of it).

A word of caution: When you send your blades out for sharpening make sure you engrave your name on the blades and insist you want your own blades back. Some of the sharpening services keep sets of these on the shelf sharpened and ready to go. But most of those are Chinese knockoffs and they don't hold an edge as well.

Also, when the sharpened blades show up be very careful with them. They can easily slice right through your finger.

I ordered the measuring guide and it is worthless. Don't bother.

This trimmer can be adjusted to 100% perfection. And nothing I know of does a better job of trimming.

When I had my picture frame shop I used this for correcting errors (mostly). I have two sets of blades as I could not afford down time.
No animals were injured or killed in the production of this post.
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#17
I coat my cast iron and O-1 tool steel tools with 3 in 1 oil and let them sit for a day or two. Then I wipe them down with a cotton sock and coat with Johnsons paste wax. Seems to keep the rust down a bit even here in north Florida.
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#18
I didn't know that Lion was out of business. There are plenty of Chinese knockoffs of questionable quality.

The Lion version has a positive stop with a brass washer that is drilled off center. By rotating the washer to various positions you can micro-adjust the positive stop.

I don't recall waxing or doing anything with mine. It has a little rust on the handle where I grip onto it. It is surprisingly heavy.

I used it mostly for trimming fillets for mat board. See: http://www.framing4yourself.com/site_med...fillet.jpg

This is particularly decorative and added quite a bit to profitability.

I made the initial miter with an anvil trimmer freehand: http://i5.walmartimages.com/dfw/dce07b8c...3d6.v1.jpg

and use the miter trimmer to trim to fit.

Back in the day of the Stanley Miter Saws it was common for picture framers to use a miter trimmer to get a clean miter. But the modern picture framing miter machines are now so accurate that the trimming operation is not required.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dhcJcC0cjzw/UY...C_0968.JPG

Note: Picture framing miter machines are much more accurate than our miter chop saws and need to make miters clean enough for pre-finished moldings, a far more demanding standard than for miters that get finished after assembly.
No animals were injured or killed in the production of this post.
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