Empire Level 36191N Precision Miter Box

The first Empire Level 36191N Miter Box arrived with a small plastic piece, located between the upper saw guide and the lower blade guide on one of the two mounts fitting over the guide posts, broken. The blade was also scuffed and bent where this plastic piece sat inside the box. Amazon immediately shipped another and paid to return the broken one. Sadly, the second miter box was also broken in virtually the same manner. The problem seems related to how the merchandise is packed inside the product display box by the manufacturer. There is no packing material inside that box, leaving the contents free to move around unrestrained. Further, the heavier guide post assembly sits inside the box directly beneath the plastic piece broken in both shipments. Apparently, as that guide post assembly shifts around during handling, it repeatedly strikes and eventually breaks the plastic piece located just above. The saw assembly either needs to be well padded or separated in some manner (cardboard, etc) from the rest of the box contents. In my case, I was able to scrounge the two unbroken mounts from the two miter boxes still in my possession to assemble a single working miter box. Amazon will simply receive a return with two broken pieces instead of the one initially reported. Since these two plastic pieces sit between, and are somewhat protected by, the guide posts while sawing, they're unlikely to break during normal use. However, knowing they certainly can break, I would handle them fairly gently while the saw is removed to change blades or whatever. Beyond that, the miter box itself (made in Taiwan) is decent enough. The base is made of diecast metal, with much of the rest also metals. The saw handle, two pieces previously mentioned, adjustment knobs, clamp knobs, and clamp caps are made of plastic. A metal clamp to secure the work material and an adjustable metal length guage for repeated cuts both bolt onto the diecast metal base. The diecast metal base ultimately screws onto a particle board platform which then can be fitted with rubber feet or either clamped or screwed down permanently to a work bench. The entire miter box assembly (roughly 11-inches tall), with various guide protrusions, consumes an area of roughly 28-inches by 29-inches on a work bench, so I prefer the more temporary mounting solutions which allow the miter box to be stored away between use in my small workshop. The 14-TPI (Teeth-Per-Inch) multi-purpose blade is 21.5 inches (54.6 cm) long. The replaceable blade attaches at each end very much like the blade on a handheld hacksaw. The miter box can handle 4.75-inch thick wood or plastic, with a 90° cross cut of 7 inches and a 45° miter cut (left or right) of 4 inches. Adjustable depth stops allow partial cuts into the work material. While I suspect the miter box will serve well enough for many years, I'm still a bit concerned about those two previously broken plastic pieces. However, since it would be easy enough to fabricate a replacement part out of an inexpensive strip of aluminum, I'm not really all that concerned.

The Empire Level 36191N appears to be a solid, technically reliable and fairly-priced miter box. While putting it together, it became obvious that 1 of the 2 identical saw guides was broken in half, rendering the tool useless. The Amazon shipping box had been loosely packed so I added quite a bit of my own packing material when returning the tool. I went back to a local home improvement store & looked closely at all of their miter boxes. A Stanley model looked similar in design & price, but taking Amazon customer reviews seriously I avoided the Stanley model, and ordered another Empire 36191N from Amazon, reasoning "Aww, the broken one was just an anomaly. Won't happen again." The 2nd one arrived today, and was again quite loosely packed with brown paper. The Empire box also had a tear on it, and some of the plastic bags inside were torn. I immediately examined the saw and its attached parts, and guess what? One of the 2 identical saw guides was broken in half, again rendering their product useless. This is extremely frustrating & time-consuming! I'll re-pack the Empire Level 36191N for return to Amazon, and will responsibly add my own packing material to protect the contents. Once that's done, I'm heading out to the local home improvement warehouse to find a effective, workable model of miter box & saw.

For what it is, it's a good product. It locks into place at the convenient angles for cutting moulding. You have to make sure that you have support on either end of the moulding to insure that the bottom of the cut is accurate though. The saw does not have enough depth for large pieces, so keep this in mind, if you are cutting large crown moulding, or shoe moulding. The blade isn't too sharp either, so a replacement blade is probably in order if you are going to be making a lot of cuts. I've used it for the past couple of years for chair railing, crown moulding, and shoe moulding and it works well, it just has a couple of warts that prevent it from getting a higher rating. If you are going to use it to redo some of your rooms in your house, this is a great product, but if you are going to use this a lot, there are probably better alternatives.

I have owned an Empire 36191N for a couple of years. It took me about six months to become truly proficient with the saw. The built in clamps are fine if cutting soft woods with some wiggle room. For exact cuts in hard wood I use my own clamps. The saw does EXACTLY what I ask of it every time. I use it almost daily in my efforts at making ornamental boxes (mostly music boxes and some jewelry boxes). Cutting 2" x 1/4" hard woods for an eight-sided box takes a calm hand and a rock solid saw. Nature gave me the calm hand and Empire has supplied the saw. I use my table saw if I'm doing a mass production run (dozen or more carcasses) but for "just one or a few" I always use my Empire 36191N. I use it so often it is permanently mounted and available to me all the time. Pros: Excellent construction Exact settings Easier than many to use. Cons: Finding replacement blades I am in search of replacement blades (second blade purchased with the saw when it was new is getting a little scratchy). And suggestions for replacements welcome.

This saw arrived with the box a third open, but nothing was missing or broken. The saw flexes in the vertical plane from say 85 to 95 degrees, and side to side another 5 degrees. So you cut a few times and then push on the sawblade to get the actual angle you want. Since it is fairly rickety you will probably want to bolt down the base. If you want to save yourself fifty bucks I would cut a jig out of oak for the angles you want to cut, and use a japanese-style thin kerf back saw. I'm not sending it back, but I can't recommend it.