Pictured above is my Millers Falls 'All Steel' miter box. I got this thing a couple of years ago on the way back from Thanksgiving in Ohio. I'd been looking for a big miter box and had dragged my ever-patient father-in-law through about 50 antique stores looking for one on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. I saw several miter boxes with saws but the boxes were either too expensive, missing essential parts, or the saws were in bad shape. So, I left my in-laws place empty handed. On the way home, the family unit and I were bombing along I-70, somewhere in Eastern Ohio, when I saw a sign for a Sunday flea market. Quicker than you can say, "Rust never sleeps," I was diverting our heavily loaded station wagon to the nearest exit. Good thing the car had ABS brakes. Anyways, we found the flea market and I left for a full scale reconnaissance while SWMBO and SWMBOette hunkered down for a spell. The flea market was in a steel 'pole barn', as we call them back home, and I made a quick circuit of the stalls. Back in the far corner, I found the miter box with that big honkin' Disston backsaw. "Glory be," I thought. A shaft of sunlight broke through the clouds and illuminated the scene while a choir of angels sang from above. Okay, maybe the angels were actually the persistent ringing in my ears I suffer from as a result of a youthful infatuation with guns. In any event, I bargained the proprietor down to $33 and hightailed it back to the car, flush with victory and a stupid grin from ear to ear.
The "All Steel" miter boxes were designed to be rugged, yet lighter in weight than the usual cast iron models. They were meant to appeal to carpenters who had to lug the tool to a job site. The saw is a Disston and the blade is 28" overall, 26" on the toothline. I decided to add a wooden deck, 1/2" Baltic birch, and a hold down system. The hold down is made from a 3/4" wooden threaded rod through a maple block. The maple block is attached to a column of 1" pipe. The thing is essentially a big C-clamp which presses down on the bed of the miter box. I chose this configuration because the bed is heavily reinforced while the back is not. It works well and is fast to use. The miter box is very accurate. It gives 90 x 90 cuts and also cuts excellent miters. I actually use it on a Workmate(TM), not on my bench.
I made an adjustable stop rod which slides on a square
piece of aluminum bar stock. The aluminum bar attaches to the back of
the base. Here's a shot of the stop system from the front:
And here is a shot of the stop system from the back:
For more information on Langdon style miter boxes check out the resources on Wiktor Kuc's repository of ephemera.
Last revised on 1/1/2006
Copyright 2000, Thomas Price - All rights reserved
