Making Crown Molding?

Does anyone have pointers to websites or publications that can provide info on making my own crown moulding? My custom kitchen cabinets came with really nice stained cherry crown molding. But to complete the room, I need about 50' of paint grade molding. The profile is NOT standard and only comes from the cab manufacturer (of course!). Even for their unstained maple, they want an outrageous $12 per lin foot. A local lumber mill can design a cutter and run some for me, but that isn't much cheaper since the cost of the cutter set up is about $250. Theirs works out to about $10 per lin foot.

I just need some $1.50/ft paint grade pine but with a matching profile. I'd like to look into making my own from stock with a router and saw.

Pointers needed. Thanks!!

--Jeff

Reply to
Jeff B
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Making molding is a pain. Making molding that matches someone else's profiles without custom made knives is almost impossible.

If it were me and I thought I was getting really screwed, I would change out all the molding and put another profile up. There are plenty of places to buy molding in most large cities, and even on the internet.

Somewhere in there, you might want to figure what your time is worth as well.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

Or, go w/ a contrasting moulding that's obviously not trying to match would be another alternative, possibly.

As for the making, it's simply look at the profile and find a series of coves and other cutters of proper radii and plan out a series of passes to get the desired profile. That, of course, is easier said than done.

Oh, last thought -- any chance you could come close by taking smaller available mouldings and build it up piecewise?

--

Reply to
dpb

I did something similar just last week. Attempts to use a large core box bit in a router for the concave parts did not go well. I ended up using a table saw.

You can make coves on a table saw by running the stock against a diagonal fence. Take multiple passes, small bites, raising the blade a bit at a time and it won't be scary.

A cove, in conjuction with various bevel cuts to approimate a convex curve can be sanded smooth to an S-curve profile. Build up the rest multipart moldings.

If you join your painted moulding to the cherry stuff with a coped joint, it won't matter of the curves (radii) match exactly. Just make sure that the sharp edges all come together and it will look fine.

I'll post some pictures to ABPW.

-Steve

Reply to
StephenM

This reminds me of the old problem of wearing out a pair of suit pants while the coat is still in perfect shape. Trying to buy a pair of pants that match "close enough" is just impossible and the near match looks horrible and obvious. So, the trick is to buy a contrasting pair of pants, like gray to go with the black coat.

In other words, the painted crown is different enough than the natural wood molding that finding a complimentary shape and painting it is better than getting something very close. Maybe make the painted version 1/3 smaller or larger to make it obvious you aren't trying for a perfect match. Maybe make the painted version less complex, or dentil or pick up some other shape to mimic from elsewhere on the cabinetry.

Reply to
SonomaProducts.com

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