Dentil molding jig/techniques?

[Tim Henrion]

Could someone recommend techniques/jigs for making dentil molding? My local dealers charge an outrageous amount of money for it and I'd like to make my own...

Thanks, Tim

[Tom Watson]

I use a scms with the depth stop set, to make crosscuts every inch or so on a wide board and then rip the board into strips of the appropriate width on the ts.

Regards, Tom Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania

[Groggy]

Tom,

I tried that but had a reasonable amount of tearout (from the SCMS), any tips?

Greg

[Tom Watson]

I put a board between the fence and the board that I'm cutting, so that the back edge of the board to be cut is at, or a bit forward of the center line of the blade.

Make sure the blade is sharp, clean and that you cut on the pull strike.

Regards, Tom Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania

[Groggy]

Now that you mention it, I vaguely recall cutting both ways in a bit of a hurry, that'd explain the "lifted" splinters. The blade and saw are new so that is the likely culprit!

Thank you,

Greg

[Doug Winterburn]

Not sure if they still sell it, but Sears had a router attachment called a "Molding Maker". I have one and have used it twice and it does work. I've also used my RAS with a dado stack, then ripping the finished profile to the desired thickness.

-Doug

[Phisherman]

Make a jig similar to a box joint jig on your table saw. It will have an index pin the same width as your dado blade, and a cleat rides in the miter groove. I made 700 dentils, but I ganged four pieces of stock to save time. This was the one time in 15 years I had to turn my saw 90 degrees to accomodate the length of the molding. It took an hour to setup and make the jig, and less than an hour to actually make

70 feet of molding. You should get details of a box-joint jig in many woodworking books or do a Google search.