Tool opinion

[Josh Bowman]

Anyone ever use one of these types of miter clamps? Do they work well or is there a better way? The miters I have to hold will not be accessible from the backs.
http://images.rockler.com/rockler/images/20308-lg.jpg

[James Baker SD]

I have a set and they do the job on picture frames pretty well. They allow you to tweak slightly off "square" cuts and still get a frame with minimal gaps in the mitres. Downside is they will dent softer woods quite a bit; you may want to temporarily attach a sacrificial surface to the outside of your mitres and let the clamps dent those. Alternatively, a little patching to fill the dent is what I usually do and they become almost invisible.

James

[David Helm]

Used to use them for trimming out doors and windows when paint grade material was used. Having said that, I have never liked mitered trim on doors and windows.