Custom Router Bits | Popular Woodworking Magazine

The joinery rotuer baseboard forms the foundation for nearly all the joinery in finish carpentry, which makes perfect sense because baseboard is meant to replicate the foundation—the plinth—of a classical column. Though casing is the first molding profile noticed in a home, and often the first molding installed in a home, baseboard is usually the first molding that an apprentice carpenter learns to cut, and for good reason.

The first eouter challenge in finish carpentry is learning how to custom baseboard router bit js and cut inside and outside corners—both miters and copes. Most carpenters are never taught how to recognize inside and outside corner miters. Note: Click any image to enlarge. There custom baseboard router bit js a few reasons why carpenters should always cope inside corners.

Wood swells and shrinks throughout the year, baseboarr upon seasonal humidity. You never have to caulk a coped joint, not like you do a poor-fitting miter, so your hands custom baseboard router bit js stay cleaner. And coping inside corners is a sign of craftsmanship. For custom baseboard router bit js carpenters, walk into a room, pick a wall and move to your left.

Carpenters who use a coping saw in their left custom baseboard router bit js might find it easier to move toward their right. Measuring long runs is difficult and the learning curve is steeper, or at least it used to be. Here are a few techniques that make the job easier:. Outside corners must be mitered. Because of that, the joints must be cut precisely to fit the wall.

Measure these pieces carefully and expect to spend some extra fiddling haseboard at each corner. Measure precisely. To avoid drywall mud build-up near the floor, always measure near the top of the molding—if necessary, trace a faint line across the top of the molding. Use a protractor. Outside corner miters must be cut at precisely the correct angle. Use a protractor to read the corner angle.

Divide the corner angle in half to get the miter angle. Mark the cutlist. This piece has an inside corner on the right, which gets coped, and an outside corner on the left OC.

Measure the next wall. Be sure to hold custom baseboard router bit js tape measure near the top of the molding and measure to approximately the same height on the outside corner. Measure one room at a time. Too many pieces on a cutlist will custoom the measurements and corner notes too small and difficult to read. I have custlm lot of fun cutting molding at my miter saw. You should, too. Having a cutlist makes the job much easier. With the molding standing up against the Custom Baseboard Router Bit Data saw fence, the right end of the molding is the right-hand corner, and the left end of the molding is the left-hand corner.

In fact, once the miter is cut, whether you use a coping saw or a jig saw, the cut can be made effortlessly—if you use the tools properly.

Make several practice cuts before attempting to cope a measured piece of molding. But before you start kneeling on the floor, buy a good pair of knee pads or place a piece of carpet or foam beneath your knees. Installing baseboard also forms a critical part of trim carpentry. The techniques used vary from wall to wall. Not all of finish carpentry can be taught through simple rules. Some of it must be learned through experience. Installing molding on long walls is one example.

But learning just how much pressure to apply takes experience. Nail off baseboard at casing. Before pressure-fitting a long piece into position, securely fasten custo, ends je casing.

See left photo, below. Snap in long pieces. Hold the royter of long lengths away from the wall. Push the corner in, then remove your hand and let basbeoard molding snap to the wall. See right photo, below.

Mark for overlaps. Butt-cut ends do not have to be removed for notching. Make notches deep. Making tight-fitting miters on outside corners custom baseboard router bit js critical. These joints are the first thing people see in baseboard, chair rail, or crown. Whenever you reach an outside corner, downshift into slow mode and start looking for anything that interferes with a tight-fitting joint.

Mistakes happen! Mark pieces in place. Some carpenters basebkard cut outside corners long so that they can mark them in place, without having to use a tape measure. Solve problems. Carve custom baseboard router bit js away. I like to fit baseboard before I begin fastening it.

Any suggestions? Miters and double glue. Also remember that MDF shows nail hole puckers really bad so be careful where you place your nail in Custom Baseboard Router Bit 10 the profile as you will most likely need to come back with a chisel to slice off the pucker prior to hole filling.

That tool looks like a major time saver. I think they probably sell that separately, too. I have been a student of Gary routee many years and spread his gospel, as it were. Question: No construction adhesive? We routrr install tall, stained base and it cuts — we hope — way down Custom Baseboard Router Bit Of on nail or pin holes.

Thanks Gary. Nice article! I was taught how you look into a room will establish copes. In a bwseboard room, the back wall base would be square cut on both ends. Both sidewalls would be coped into it with the opposite ends square cut. The jjs walls would be basebord into the sidewalls.

Steve, I was taught that way too and used that method for a long time until I realized that it often leads to problems. For starters, you will move much faster if you base a room in one direction; moving rotationally from the door around and back to the door. More importantly, your cuts will almost all be the same. Not having to question the angle of the cut on each end of each piece saves time and reduces errors.

Then as Gary points out performing the cope is the same every time. The cope is the most complex operation involved; custom baseboard router bit js complicate it further by changing the end or your stance or any other variable. Just get good and fast at the one cope and make it your only cope for the job. Nice article, Gary. Each end will have one of four profiles: square, pointy mitercurve cope or jagged cut long, scribe in place.

Not as efficient as trusting your tape, but it gets you there. Harlan, Good catch! I made a note for that photograph. The one before is just right—with the tape measure butted against the casing.

Great job on the video and excellent scenarios of how to fix the issue when running into these problems. I have ran allot of trim especially base boards if I can suggest a custom baseboard router bit js on doing inside The other method I basebpard for painted millwork on higher end applications baseboaed that I divide the inside wall angle into equal sections then cut small angled custom baseboard router bit js of base around the inside of the wall angle, glue jss with SP then sand the inside profile to make a smooth transition around the inside corners this eliminates digging into the wall, custom baseboard router bit js of work Basebowrd know but customm very clean!

I remember a product review you did some years back, an adjustor bazeboard for those oh-so-frequent situations bi the butt piece of baseboard sits too far back at the bottom, often because of tapered-edge drywall, messing up the fit of the coped piece. You mentioned that a lot of us use drywall screws baseboarv shim the base back out, but that this new gizmo allowed adjustment with the base in place. So your suggestion is doubly good!

I felt the building trade 20 years ago in New Orleans. At that time, the step down moulding was getting hard to find. Thanks Gary… The older I get, the more I forget, and the more it helps to custom baseboard router bit js everything from the beginning.

Touter a touch of brain damage too. Causes a rojter of excitement for the GC sometimes. Steve — does this mean that vustom Custom Baseboard Router Bit Color are affixing your trim directly custom baseboard router bit js the wall framing?

Need a Custom Router bit for a special application? We love to do custom work. Get a quote on a Custom Router Bit or Call for a quote. We sell router bits from several different manufacturers including Fine Woodworking Magazine's top rated router bit brand Whiteside, and Southeast Tool - Rated Excellent by Fine Woodworking Magazine. At Woodline we specialize in carbide router bits and shaper cutters that are premium quality and a great value. Woodline offers a LIMITED LIFETIME WARRANTY on router bits and shaper cutters. Of course some limitations like hitting nails or dropping them apply but ours is the best warranty and customer service policy in the business. Is it possible to get a custom-made router bit to match an old molding profile? A. Yes, it is! Andrews Toolworks is one company in the business of making one-of-a-kind carbide bits. Prices range from $ to $ for a single bit. So if you only have a few feet of molding to run, there are more economical ways of reproducing old moldings (see.

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