Is there practical way to make a rope molding in home workshop?
- posted
19 years ago
Rope molding
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- posted
19 years ago
"Practical" and "home" ? Well, if you mean "possible to make" and "no-one is counting the labour costs" then yes.
You do a split turning, where two pieces of timber are stuck together across a layer of brown kraft paper. Then you dry it (doh!), then you turn it, then you split them apart again. This is fairly common for a lot of Jacobean oak work - half spindles as decoration on the front of cabinets.
As to the ropework, then it's a form of "barley sugar" turning, which I'm sure you can find through Google or that paper-book-stuff. It's less carving, and more like carving a piece held in the lathe and turned gently by hand. The spiral is marked out in pencil beforehand, then you shape it with a gouge. There are also router lathes (a fairly simple jig) to hog off much of the timber under power, if you're making big stuff.
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- posted
19 years ago
Inside This Old House recycles some of the TOH shows from the 80's. A few weeks ago they showed this same thing. Started off with half round stock, pencil marked the rope lines and started at it with a handsaw. Cut maybe half way through and then took at it with a chisel and finished off with sandpaper. Looked like a fair amount of work.
TomL