Brand name or no brand name?

I have this cheap no brand name miter box that I have been using this past year and it has worked great for me. Easy to set up and put away. I wanted something that had a few more options for cutting angles so I picked up this cheap Stanley miter box and saw set.

Brand name products and tools are not necessarily the best and in this case the Stanley box is somewhat inferior to the no name box. The 22.5° cuts I made with the Stanley are not as accurate as they should have been. It’s still a useful miter box. I will say the saw that came with the this box is very nice.

The slots for cutting 90° cuts are in the middle which makes it easier to hold onto the wood with my left hand while cutting with my right hand. The 90° slots in the Stanley are at the left edge of the box which probably works great for left hand folk. There is a dropped edge on the front of each box which allows the box to stop at the edge of the table. So the boxes can’t be flipped.

The saw slots in the no name box are narrower than those in the Stanley so the saw blade fits better making for more accurate buts. There is too much room in the Stanley box for the saw to move and tilt.