Stumbled across this on the web. I have no affiliation, it just looks like a cool tool if you've got a lot a baseboard to install. OTOH, it could be a piece of junk.
In brief, you make a mold of your baseboard's profile and use it as a template to guide a router.
Thank you sir, for the heads up.
This fits into the category of the head slap followed by the exclamation, "Why didn't I think of that".
Seems like a LOT of trouble to go through. It would seem that if you spent the same time it took to make just one pattern practicing, you could master the skill. Coping gets easier and easier each time you do it.
Interesting, though!
I also noticed it won't cope crown, quarter round, shoe, base, or most anything that's not baseboard or certain chair rails, so you'll still need coping skill...
Might be useful if you only have a couple profiles. For a pro who's doing a bunch, you'll run out of the plaster.
Another option for coping is the Collins coping foot for a jigsaw.
Chris
on 9/5/2007 3:35 PM DerbyDad03 said the following:
By the time I set up all that stuff, I'll have cut 3 or 3 moldings with a coping saw.
And it's limited to 1/4" internal radius. Won't work with my baseboards.
- By the time I set up all that stuff, I'll have cut 3 or 3 moldings with
- a coping saw.
- Bill
Yeah but...
What if you were the trim guy for a builder who used a specific baseboard 95% of the time? Assuming the template could handle the wear and tear of hundreds of router passes, wouldn't it save time in the long run to spend 20 minutes up front making the template? (I'm not defending it...just asking!)
Text on website says "guaranteed to save ... hours on every job." Video says "... but we recommend that you leave the template overnight so that it cures completely."
Just how long do they think it takes to cut a coped joint by hand, anyway? I can cut and fit an awful lot of coped joints in the time it takes that sucker to cure overnight...
Oh, absolutely.
The video addresses survivability during repeated use, too: they suggest making the first cut from the molded piece in plexiglass, then using *that* as the template for subsequent cuts in wood.
Looks like their market is high-volume professional trim carpenters, and DIYers who lack either the dexterity or the confidence to make coped cuts.
I'm not going to be buying one. But it's a clever idea, and I wish I'd thought of it.
I can cut a piece of baseboard, or a piece of plain crown molding in less than a minute, using a miter saw (powered or hand sawn) in less than a minute. Intricate crown molding is best beveled cut. I did work for a GC installing base molding throughout the house. Only one end of a base molding needs coping.
.You'd still have to mount the piece in the jig, pick up the router, route the 'cope', and touch up the finished product (1/4" radius will not make a tight fit on most baseboards). For $122, I'd say it's hardly worth the trouble.
Yep. Just doesn't take all that long to do, and the skill isn't all *that* hard to learn.
on 9/5/2007 4:45 PM Doug Miller said the following:
Nope. The guy that taught me ran a piece of molding through the miter saw, and then with the edge of a carpenters pencil, marked the edge of the miter for better visibility, and use the coping saw angled a little back to saw the molding, so only the face made contact with the other molding's face. Piece of cake!
on 9/5/2007 4:41 PM Dan Reisig said the following:
Back in the day when I worked for a GC, $120 was more than a day's pay.
By the time the plaster dries, I will have the house done. Plus, how do you deal with corners where the piece being coped to is not plumb? It is a good idea and probably has some uses, but it will never take off in the real world. Takes way too long to set up, and coping is not hard at all. Plus it will only work in ideal conditions (i.e; no out of plumb situations, corners square, etc.). The way that I do baseboard would require two molds, one for each end, because I do different configurations differently. I also cannot see how it would be easy to measure to the point you are coping, so you would have to cope, then measure, then cut the other end (at least it seems that way).
Nowadays, it's lunch, if you stick to fast food.
THAT is a useful tool!
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I agree that the Coper won't be handling irregular corners. I also wonder about the router-bit tearing woods, like oak, as you exit the pass. THE trick in coping by hand is the right TPI on the blade, and the tension on the fresh/sharp coping blade. Also, a comfortable, but solid, way to hold to work really helps.
For MDF (paintable) stock, who cares, a little latex caulking will hide anything. For real wood, fancy baseboard, the Coper simply will not cut the smaller inside radii OR the mustard.
I DO see a place for the Coper, just not in my type of work. Spiffy idea though.
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