hi, i have several short pieces of picture rail missing from my victorian house. they arent particularly elaborate but it has been impossible to get even a close match from local timber yards or sheds. Im thinking it may be possible to use a router to make up a few pieces to match but im not sure how easy or practical this would be. any advice or opinions much appreciated.
If they're only short lengths and it's only for aesthetics, you could make a latex mould from a piece of the original and cast your own using plaster or resin.
Brad.
We had some architrave from our last house (victorian terrace) copied by a local joiner - they used a spindle moulder and made a cutter that matched. The first few bits were quite expensive due to setup charges (cost of making the cutter), but after that it was reasonable.
Worth asking...
Mike
Look through the yellow pages for building salvage and reclamation.
Hi,
I had exactly the same problem. I took a sample piece to a Travis Perkins (I think) and they told me they could get it made as a special job, but the tool would have to be made specially with the correct profile. After that there was a set price per length. But they also told me of a smaller yard down the road that would do it cheaper so I went there!! I think it cost about £70 for about 24m. Well worth it
- I now have all the same picture rail in the house -different profiles would have looked very odd. Also I would have had to redo an entire room instead of just 'bits'. But it also paid to rip out some of the odd bits and run all new rail from corners etc.
Hope this helps. David.
Don't skimp on the length! Once the fixed cost has been paid, the price per metre is small. Order more than you need rather than run out. Yes I didn't the first time :-( , now I do :o).
If the OP had put his location, I'm sure someone would have told him where to get it done.
thanks for all the advice . I live in brockley, south east London so if anyone knows anybody close to me who could make it up id be really grateful.
Any joiners shop with a fence style router can do it. These are big machines with heads that take plates of tool steel. You grind the tools to the correct profile on a grindng wheel, set the edges right, mount em and spin em up and shove the timber through. Takes a fair time to make the tool and set the machine up.
No time at all to machine tho. Probably up to 30m a minute.
This all sounds very improvident.
What he should do is: Take off the tatty stuff and bin it. He could use some of the best of the scrap to patch one or two seldom used rooms and then replace the stuff in the best rooms with new.
He wouldn't have to pay fees for matching then.
What you do (if you have a spindle or know someone that has) is cut a section at 30 degrees and make a blade to suit that. You balance the blade in the head with a similar weighted blade, set to not cut.
The metal is hss steel and you shape it on an ordinary grinder with a narrow red abrasive (carborundum composite) stone. The angle of the edge is also about 30 degrees -but for a one off that isn't crucial.
The dado is probably set with nails in wooden wedges, as they didn't have rawlplugs in those days. So be prepared for a lot of mess when ripping them out.
There's a timber yard not far from here (North Shields/Tynemouth - far enough to not be described as 'local' though) that will match any moulding or architrave you care to take in. There's setup costs involved, naturally, but it's handy to know that such places exist.
-- cheers,
witchy/binarydinosaurs
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