Humbling Experience

[Carl_NH]

I've done this too, usually putting up the inside corner matching the previous piece, then angle cuttng the ends to make the seams mate well but leaving the inside/outside corners 16-20" short for fitting these pieces - it's a lot easier to cut small pieces than 10'er's.

What helps too is blocking behind the cuts - pending the size of molding block the back side with a 45 degree piece so you have solid nailing for 6-8" on either side of the splice allows you to make the corner cut finished to what you want then the final cut for the right space to make the inside/outside corner.

Carl

 

[MDNick]

One trick to help you match up the line for coping is to use a compass (no, not a magnetic one, a geometric one). You open it up to the width and a bit of the crown molding. Hold the piece to be coped up in place with an uncut end against a piece already tacked in place. Then put the tip of the compass on the edge of the molding that is in place, and holding the compass horizontal, trace the shape of one molding onto the other. Hope you followed that. This works equally well when putting up drywall if your wall isn't plum, plywood as wall board, heck just about anything that you want to meet at an inside corner. Once you have the line traced, cut on it. Sounds simple, right! In principle it is.

Those that use the put in place and cut at the pencil mark are just doing what pro carpenters have always done. It really amazes me to see some of them at work. They do incredible work and rarely ever measure. They just hold it in place and go, that's about right. And it generally is. I measure, measure, measure, measure, measure . . .cut, CRAP (cleaned up), measure, measure . . .

I have the DeWalt miter saw. It can do incredible stuff. I haven't a clue how to do it with it, though.

 

[turnkey4099]

My problem on doing ceiling molding of any kind is picturing the angles needed when I am at the saw. I solved that by carying a batch of short cut-offs with different angle cuts. Pick out the one I need, go to saw and cut. Yep, amatuerish but it works.

Harry K

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

This may be a dumb question, but, for those of you cutting your pieces rather than coping them, what angle are you using? I know conventional wisdom indicates you should divide a 90 degree corner (inside or outside) with 45 degree angles.

I don't remember the excellent explanation I got for this years ago, but what you really need are cuts at 52.38 degrees and 37.62 degrees for those corners. I'm sure if your mitre saw doesn't have those stops already marked or if you're not using a saw with a digital display that simply lining up with 52 degree and 38 degrees will work for you.

As to a nailing backer as Carl NH mentioned, I just use the same piece I'm going to use on the job clamped to my rail. That way I'm always at the proper angle when I'm cutting. For a really nice finish on outside corners I usually put a dab of glue on the cut edges and use a couple fine finish nail in pre-drilled holes, countersink them then fill with the appropriate color wood putty. Generally I'll put a couple layers of the putty on because of the shrinkage when the first one dries even in such a small hole.

 

[Tdog]

t4099, I did that too, at first. Amatuerish? I already said it was humbling.

Gary in In, the Kenmore I bought had the correct angles marked in addition to stops. Something I didn't even realize until I started setting it up for my first cut [after many agonizing minutes working up the courage]. No way I could have adjusted it to the hundredths of a degree that was called for.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

I've used saws that didn't have the sets on it and found that rounding worked well enough when I set at 52 and 38 degrees. I got spoiled years ago by a digital table saw and digital radial arm saw. Just punch in 52.38 on the keypad, hit 'Enter' and watch the saw blade move to the proper angle. /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif

 

[b249]

I about needed a straight jacket trying to get the right angles with a compound mitre saw because few of the walls in the room I was working in are anything near "square". The best way I found was to go out a buy a coping saw and backcut the one piece along the profile.

Back-cutting was/is the only way to go in my book. When it's done you can always tell everyone that you computed the angles longhand and then made the cuts!!

Good luck w/ your project!!

b249