Old miter saw

[Jeff Lewis]

I may be posting in the wrong place, but here goes.

I bought a Stanley #326 miter box (doesn't look like a box but don't know what else to call it, frame maybe?) with 2 Disston backsaws (28" x 5" blades) yesterday from an antique store in my grand daughter's home town. Clean and in good condition with no slop in the mechanisms. Just got home this afternoon and haven't made it to the shop yet to try it out, but am wondering tonight if I made a good buy ($75) or revealed my foolish nature once again.

[Bill Houghton]

They are generally called miter boxes, referring back to the original design - a trough that resembles a box, with the saw cutting through the two sides of the trough to establish guides. I'm not familiar with the Stanley boxes, and a picture would help - but from what you describe, it's probably a pretty decent to very good tool, depending on condition.

Sight down the length of the saws, both at the tooth line and at the back. They should be straight both places; bends or kinks will be frustrating.

As to price - I've paid $15-20 for my equivalents, but not all areas enjoy prices like those. If you're in a tool-poor area, that might well be less than you'd have paid on eBay, if you count shipping, and you had the advantage of being able to see the box and saws before buying.

The big "professional" miter boxes are incredible tools. With my Langdon Acme box, I can shave a sawkerf's thickness off a piece of molding stock for final fitting. When they were selling new, back at the beginning of the 20th century, they were selling for a price equivalent to that of a modern cabinet table saw - and there are enough around that they were obviously selling quite a few.

[Jeff Lewis]

Thanks for posting. I'll try to take a pic in the morning and post it. It's an ingenious looking thing nad I'm looking forward to trying it out.

[Brendan Dahl]

If you're looking for manuals or more information on your mitre box ToolTrip has some good information. The site works strangely so I can't link directly to the page but go to the "Stanley Tools" section and then there should be a mitre box page. Here's a 358 mitre box I restored which I got for $35, but it was in pretty poor condition: (more info and pictures on my site)
stanley 358 restored.jpg

[Dave Ring]

I have one of those too (I can't remember the exact model number). I only paid $15 or $20 for it but it works so well and I use it so much that if I had paid $75 for it I'd consider it a bargain. If you compare it to what's available new (manual or powered) I think you might agree.

I think they tend to go cheap at flea markets etc. because the demand for them is low and they're bulky and a pain to cart around.