Anyone try molding stops?

[nailshooter41]

I am 97% finished with the kitchen I have been working on, and remembered a question I wanted to ask here.

Seems everyone wants crown molding somewhere in their homes. In kitchen I am wrapping up I used it over the cab uppers to give the cabinets a bit more dimension. It was painted (along with the valance) the same color as the cabinets to fool the eye by adding a longer dimension since the cabinets weren't replaced.

A couple of folks liked the idea, and we are now flirting with me coming to their houses after the holidays to do something similar.

When I was putting up the pre-primed crown, there were paint drips on the edges (not face) of the crown making it unstable in the miter box. All the trim was that way, and unless I stood and scraped two feet on each side of a joint, it screwed up my fit. I can't leave this for the guys applying the finish; that's me.

This is the third time lately I have bought preprimed product that had

large< drops of primer on edges. A review of the product down at the

big boxes showed all theirs to be the same, and apparently our local hardwood supplier (that charges 30% more than the boxes) sells what looks to be the same crap.

It takes too much time to stand and scrape the primer around the soon to be joints. Some of the primer is really soft, but some is really hard. All of it is a pain in the ass to remove and a waste of time.

Trying to get around this problem, I was wondering if anyone has used the crown stops (DW7084)? I don't need a cutting guide, a miter stop, a gauge, etc., and don't want anything that will clamp inside the bed on the saw to take away from its capacity.

I know I could get around this by cutting the moldings flat, but it takes me too long to do it. Nesting makes cutting crown like cutting base molding, and flat cutting makes it too hard for me to see my pencil marks to cut off a degree or two.

And unless it is simply too wide to cut nested, I always cut crown nested. And my thumb has been my clamp for 25 years of crown molding, but that also means I can feel the movement (not to mention see the results) of the material moving on the primer drops.

Worse, the primer drops keep the molding from nesting at the proper install angle to be cut. Amazing what one drop or heavy primer can do to your joints. Even more amazing how pissed off it will make you when you have to allow extra time for its effects.

So will crown stops for the miter box do the trick on primed molding? At $22, they would easily pay for themselves on one job.

Thoughts? Experiences? Anyone got a better idea?

Robert

[julvr]

So for starters -- don't try to cut the molding flat -- I tried that, but it takes more time, is less accurate, etc. My experience was with

5" molding, so even a fraction of a degree was very visible, and after many attempts cutting it flat, I decided it wasn't the way to go.

I found it better to brace the piece in the miter saw at the correct angle, cut it, try it, and if it didn't fit perfectly adjust the miter ever so slightly, until it was perfect (for longer pieces which were length dependent, I did my tests on a scrap piece until it fit perfectly, and used that setting to cut the long piece).

What I ended up doing was creating a few braces to hold my pieces at the correct angle. Each brace was simply a piece of wood cut at 45 degrees, such that the long end was exactly the length of the back of the molding. I rested the molding against several braces for each cut. This way the molding was always cut at the perfect angle -- no room for slop.

Now, about your paint drip problem: First off, I would look into getting better primed moldings without paint drops. If you can't do that, get unprimed moldings, and prime afterwords. If you can't do any of those two, another suggestion would be to take the braces I described, and glue 1/4"x3/4" flat pieces of wood to the bottoms and sides, that protrude out a little. This way the molding rests only on two to four points, which you adjust such that they are not over any paint drops. Excuse the ascii art, but the side profile of the brace would look like this:

| | |\ | \ | \ L___\___

and it would be 3/4" thick. The braces will likely be more accurate than the miter stops you are looking at.

Also, in the category of "learn from my mistakes", I spent a few minutes embedding a few rare earth magnets onto my braces, as I thought it would help hold them in place. As it turned out, my mitersaw base was aluminum, so they had no effect. It turns out they worked fine without the magnets.

John

(Here's a picture of my crown molding:

John

[BDBConstruction]

rge< drops of primer on edges. =A0A review of the product down at the

The paint drops should be easily dealt with with a couple passes of a good sharp block plane with an open throat. I cant say that we have ever had much pre-primed with drips but we dont do much painted trim. We have however had drips on pre-finished urethaned trim and a good sharp plane takes care of it hard or soft. If its gummy it may be another issue but I would think if its not wet enough to prime your hands while handling it a block plane should suffice.

Mark

[nailshooter41]

Like I said, I don't like to do that. But if cutting extra wide molding is part of a job, you do what you have to do, right?

It is easy enough with practice to cut the moldings flat, and in some cases it may be the only way you can cut the larger crown moldings. Or those with difficult to handle profiles. You will be proficient with a good saw and blade after a few houses of the big stuff, though.

LOL... thanks for he heads up! DOH!

No.... don't think I will be priming as much as a few hundred feet of molding. I am not looking to add steps to the process of a remodel, and I don't think my clients would appreciate the extra time and hassle of spraying, and I don't like brush marks unless they are unavoidable.

I appreciate the post and the time you spent on it, but after years of installing crown, I actually don't have trouble with my cuts or fits. Unless there are large, hard drips on the molding to throw off the way the molding sits in the saw.

I am just looking for a fast, easy fix I don't have to think about.

Like your train page and setup. Looks like a pretty neat setup!

Robert

[Father Haskell]

large< drops of primer on edges. =A0A review of the product down at the

3/4" chisel will take down all runs in one quick sweep. Sharpens in half the time of a block plane iron after you dull it shaving paint.

[Charlie Groh]

had>large< drops of primer on edges.  A review of the product down at the

...I use a 12" DeWalt CM for cutting crown, and I bought the stops when I bought the saw 12 years ago. I've used 'em many times, and forgot to bring 'em many times, too. That said, your issue is to get the stuff laying against the fence and table correctly, so I don't think the stops would help that...the material still would not sit right. I've ran into your problem once or twice and just pulled that little Stanley rasp out (you know, the one that shaves drywall really good) and bye-bye booger.

As an aside, I've tried to cut on the flat, too. Bought the book, which was cheap, and bought that trick little 7" Makita slider, which wasn't so cheap (but a great little saw, doncha know)...successfully cut a whole house that way and next crown job went back to the ol' DeWalt. The little saw now comes in handy for furniture projects!

cg