Having removed a Victorian fireplace from a bedroom in my son's house, I need to replace a length of skirting board across the front of the chimney breast.
Being an old house, the skirting board is typical of the age - being very 'tall'. I haven't measured it - but I would estimate around 7". This is much higher than the sides of any of the three mitre-blocks that I own. I don't own a mitreing chop saw - and cannot justify the expense as it would receive such little use in the future.
Any suggestions for how to cut an accurate mitre in a situation such as this?
You probably don't want a mitre cut with a mitre block anyway. They assume the corner needs to be square and that is very rare in any house, but particularly in Victorian houses IME.
If you feel you really need a router, you can get mitre cutting routing tools for them, but they will suffer from the same problem as a mitre block.
The best answer is careful mesurement, marking and cutting with a hand saw.
You need the right tool, which is a "board mitre". They're made by Emir (and have been since Noah bought his) and are about a tenner.
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this you'll also want to use a simple back saw. Tenon saws are a bit on the small side, so you might be better with a smallish and fine- toothed panel saw.
Despite being a form of mitre box, they're not a mitre box in the usual sense and a mitre box can't be used for wide boards. You need to saw the board from its back, not from one edge. Sawing down from the edge, even with a big bandsaw, tends to give an uneven edge.
Most corners are square enough that you can use a standard board mitre, unless you live in the Pentagon or one of Bath's crescents. A slight adjustment can be made by shimming underneath the board. It's usually best to cut the board fractionally sharper than the wall, as a little filler on the top edge isn't noticed, so long as there's no gap on the outer edge. If the wall isn't vertical, the board mitre can be clamped on the board so as to not be quite square, following the wall angle.
Some Victorian skirtings need an extra-wide board mitre and you might have to make your own. They're not hard. Mine is just 3/4" MDF with clamp screws from Pound Shop G clamps. If you make your own board mitre or mitre box, it's worth plastic-facing the saw's rubbing surfaces to avoid wear. Formica strips are good, PTFE rolls sold for the purpose are poor (Work well, but really hard to attach smoothly)
I did a load of 12" skirting recently with a cheapo circular saw set to
45 degs. Knocked up a jig and clamped it to a workmate
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always work to the inside length (i.e. the wall), and allow the outside measurement to set itself. Can't think of any job where cockups are easier (RH mitre instead of LH etc), so I always give that second cut a lot of thought. It can be a very expensive mistake.
Now the only problem is obtaining a length of matching skirting board... Been around all the local builders and timber merchants today - none of them have any skirting that is a good match for the piece I took in. I found a joiner who would router a length for me - but he would need to grind a 'bit' to make a good match and wanted £30 for a metre length! (He said the expense was in setting-up, and he'd charge the same price for 4 metres).
Mark it out checking angle with bevel gauge, and cut with a tennon saw. If you have a lot of mitres then you could make a mitre block ... but cut with board horizontal not vertical
That sounds a fair, even cheap, price, given that he has to make a special cutter. I suspect he will be using a spindle moulder, rather than a router, as the cutters for those are relatively easy to make.
Good idea. That is exactly what was done in this house, and it was years before I noticed. The joint is nicely done, presumably with filler, and, when painted, just isn't obvious.
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