Lion Trimmer issues.....

[Larry Edgerton]

Lion trimmer......
I recently aquired a NOS Lion Trimmer and just did my first job with it. I was doing a coffered ceiling with African Cherry/Makore and ran into some issues, was wondering how you fellows with a trimmer dealt with them. I used it for the small moulding that go in between the beams.

#1

African cherry is fairly hard, but no harder than say white oak I would say. It does chip easy though. The problem that I had was that the gear would skip even on the lightest cuts, say 1/64". Then you had to run the knives out and reset the gear where it needs to be. I temporarily fixed the problem by putting some sawdust in the gear rack to raise the rotating gear.

I was thinking about pouring some molten soldier in the bottom rack to raise the gear wheel for better bite on the top rack. Any problem with that?

#2

Again, this may have to do with the hardness of the wood used, but I had a hard time keeping the fences at 45 degrees. I had the stop adjusted perfectly. and the thumbscrew tight, by hand, but it would push the springloaded stop down and slide back toward 90 degrees.

Are these not really suited to very hard wood? I played with it in the shop with poplar and did not see these problems.

Is there a way to adjust the rack to rack distance that I am missing?

I knew that this was its virgin run, so I made extra mouldings, and I did get the job done. It worked very well other than these small problems. The blades are very sharp by the way, so that was not an issue. I figured that out when I caught my hand on the point of the knife when the round gear was not set right and sliding it back too far.

This wood chips bad with a chop saw on miters, so it actually worked out better than power tools. I mitered because there was not enough money for coping, and this stuff does not cope well anyway.

Any input would be great as this is the only Lion trimmer I have ever seen.

Larry

[Tony Zaffuto]

Can't speak to really hard wood, but from my experience with cherry and similar hardwoods, I find I have luck only with very fine cuts. It also helps to moisten the end grain with some mineral spirits. Also, make sure the blades are kept well honed.

My Lion was bought new about 6 or 7 years ago, and must of been one of the lasts before they closed down. It never skipped a tooth on the gearing and that sounds as if there is something misadjusted on yours, but I also don't know if there is any area of adjustment either. I'll take a look at mine later today.

[Gary Herrmann]

Miter trimmers function similarly to shooting boards. 1/64 is a lot to remove in an end grain slice. Think in terms of a smooth plane shaving. Much lighter cut. As much as 5-10 time thinner.

[Larry Edgerton]

I will have to get better glasses. I didn't have problems with the small mouldings, but the larger pieces were not happening. What are the practical limits of size on harder woods?

[george wilson]

There must be something wrong with your trimmer. I have a real Lion,and a Taiwan clone. Neither have ever jumped gears,and I have taken off some pretty good slices,too.

On the real Lion,I did have to add shims to the columns as it would not cut 90º in a vertical direction. I was surprised to have to do that to the real Lion. An old one at that.

[Gary Hodgin]

Miter trimmers function similarly to shooting boards. 1/64 is a lot to remove in an end grain slice. Think in terms of a smooth plane shaving. Much lighter cut. As much as 5-10 time thinner.

I was thinking the same thing. One sixty-fourth is about 15 thousands. My end grain cuts on a shooting board are probably around one or two thousands at most. I've never used a miter trimmer so I don't know how comparable it is to a shooting board, but that size cut would be very difficult on a board.

[Tony Zaffuto]

This morning, I dug out my (original) Lion miter trimmer to fit some miters on a chess board I'm making. The border is walnut and although I typically only take very light cuts (think .002 to .004), I decided to go a bit heavier. I was able to get to .010 without any degradation to the cut, although it was quite a push and not something I would recommend. The key is very light cuts, sneaking up on the fit.

I looked over the tool and I don't see any readily accessible means of adjust the gears together. Also, a tip for when you need to trim only the heel or toe and don't want to mess with the 45 degree adjustment: do as you do with your shooting board and use a small piece of card stock to move the board out or in to trim to portion needing trimmed.

[Brent Smith]

Hi Larry,
You have to think of the tool as being misnamed. It's not a trimmer as much as it is a shaver. Length and angle of your material should be pretty much dialed in before moving to the lion. The tool is designed for making minute fixes and shavings taken should be almost transparent.

[Larry Edgerton]

I filled in the bottom rack a bit with silver solder so the gears do not drop in so far and it is working just fine now. I ordered a pair of 45 degree blocks from a machine tool company and will fit them on pins so that the fence always stays at 90 degrees, and I will drop the blocks with pins into holes in the table for 45 degree miters so the fence never needs to be adjusted. We will see how that works out......