Karl - you may lose me to the Dark Side

nailshooter41 · 2013-01-29T09:17:37+00:00

As we did last Christmas, we spoke of the fact that us bettercarpenters/woodworkers/installers cope our inside joints as needed tocover out of square joints in trim of all sorts. And we agree thatnever is it more important than doing this on crown molding.But I just finished up the kitchen I told you about, and put thetypical 2 1/2" crown around the cabinets. I don't think I have everused a harder wood. It was marked as maple on the unfinished side,but should have been marked aircraft grade aluminum. I got the jointswhere I wanted them, but the inside corners took me right at 30minutes to cope and fit! Each! An hour for two joints!Usually I knock these out in about 15 minutes or so (each)to fit to myspec, including the cope and final fit with my large stockman. Myusual gear: top it off, check the joint out over this cabinet door. You cansee the difference in the profile. (Don't look at the shadows abovethe trim - I put the joint on a low joist so I wouldn't have that muchproblem fitting it.) The different dimension of the profile made iteven more fun than it should have been. this were red oak, birch, regular maple, that nasty pre-primedfinger jointed catalpa or any other softer woods it wouldn't have beena problem. But next time I might join your boys and check out aninside corner cut on the miter saw before I get going on the trims,depending on what my clients are paying for when we discuss terms.The last time I used trim this hard was when I built a set ofbarrister's book cases and put a little removable dimensional piecethat sat on the very top unit like a hat. I trimmed out the hat piecewith white oak crown moulding to match the white oak cabinets and gotthe bright idea it should be kiln dried to keep the joints from movingwhen secured. After making the profiling cut on the miter saw, Iwound up cutting most of the material away with a belt sander as I ranout of patience and time removing that white oak with a coping saw.Have you run into any of...