Lyon (et.al) Mitre Trimmer

LION trimmer

Jack Guzman from Maine

I have had one for many years. It is one tool I would never get rid of. I don't use it often but when I do it proves itself every time. It is especially handy for narrow moldings. Get one and you will find uses for it.

Re: Lyon (et.al) Mitre Trimmer

David Yoho

Like you said, you first need to determine what the frames are made of. I just had perhaps a crazy idea but may be worth thinking about more.

If the frame is wood - can you get them apart without damage? How much smaller do they need to be ** basically how much do you need to cut? If quite a bit, maybe cut and miter parts to a rough dimension on a saw of your choice. My thought was from here the miters could be sanded to final angle and length on a disc sander. I would think sanding this way might provide the cleanest results.

I've never used mine with picture framing

Dick Coers

But find it invaluable for furniture trimming. On furniture, there can be a slight out of square condition, or the need to remove the slightest bit of material to get the perfect fit on length. For picture framing, there is no squaring issue if your tablesaw fixture is good. Also with stops set, you get matching length pieces. I would not use a miter saw, only a sliding fixture on the table saw for high quality framing work. I have a Grizzly version of the trimmer, but always found it of sufficient quality.

Re: I've never used mine with picture framing

Jack Guzman from Maine

Mine is a grizzly too but it works fine.

Shooting board???

Barry Irby

Had a chance to buy a Lion Trimmer for next to nothing and let it go by. Than may have been my bad.

Someone posted a picture of a shooting board but the plane had sandpaper attached to the base. That was something of an Ah Ha! moment for me. I am not a hand plane person. Been thinking about a shooting board but my ineptitude with hand planes made it seem like a bad idea, but I can sand with the best of them so the idea sanding a joint into submission seems do-able.

Make up a board with an excellent forty five and a matching block with a set of nice square corners and adhere sand paper to two sides. There needs to be a little rail at the bottom for the block to rub on with out sanding it away, so the sandpaper needs to be a 1/4" or so from the edge. I think I found a YouTube version. The advantage here is you can make it any size you need. And it costs nearly nothing.

Re: I've never used mine with picture framing

Kevin French

My Langdon Miter Box and Trimmer come out together.

My 2 cents

Ellis Walentine

I've owned a couple Lion trimmers, including a brand new Pootatuck trimmer, and they do a beautiful job, *if* they are almost perfectly sharpened, which is not as easy or as likely as it may seem. If the knives aren't sharp, they will ride out of the cut and throw off the angle. I used to have the knives sharpened by a professional sharpening shop.

But, I see two deal breakers in your case: First, if any of your frames have plaster, on them, it'll kill your sharp edges quickly, and second, it won't handle your wider frame stock. I don't recall the exact capacity of the trimmer, but I know it's less than your six-inch material.

For what it's worth, I recommend using a disc sander and a sled-type fixture with a hardwood strip that slides in the miter-gauge slot of your sander's work table. This will solve your issues with plaster and stock width, not to mention chipping out. You can use a chop saw with a fine-tooth blade or even a bandsaw to get close to the final miter and then finish it up on the disc sander.

Make the sled with left and right fences that are exactly 90° to each other, so the corners will be tight even if your guide strip is a little off 45°.

Ellis

Re: Lyon (et.al) Mitre Trimmer

mark nowicki

Walk away, the commercial shops probably rejected it for a very good reason.

There is no profit or glory in this.

Re: Lyon (et.al) Mitre Trimmer

John McGaw

I have used but never owned one of these specialized tools, having had access to one at a USAF art and crafts center during my alleged military career. It is hard to imagine that there is a better way to do what it does but the price is high enough that I'd have to think long and hard to find a way to justify the expense unless I was opening a framing business.

Re: Lyon (et.al) Mitre Trimmer

Joe shelton

"...alleged military career..." That's a hoot. 'Legs' have often accused the Air Force of being a paramilitary organization.

However, unlike nasty Legs, we Airborne types have never been harsh with you blue-suiters because y'all are so good at giving us rides to the DZ.

ALL THE WAY!

Re: Lyon (et.al) Mitre Trimmer

John McGaw

...and we were always glad to give the jumpers a ride to where ever they wanted to get off -- just as long as they really were going to get out. It is never good to be riding with a bunch of armed guys who want to jump out of a perfectly functional aircraft for no explainable reason. In the AF we just want to get back to the club in time for happy hour with all body parts intact...

Re: Lyon (et.al) Mitre Trimmer

Joe shelton

Simple reason. While a PLF can be stressful, landing in one of those beasts is downright dangerous!