116 FINE HOMEBUILDING

buildingskillsL E A R N T H E B A S I C S

Coping moldings

hen two pieces of trimmeet at an inside corner,you could miter the joint,

but most professional carpenters preferto cope. An airtight coped joint is easierto produce: It doesnt require the per-fectly square corner that a miteredjoint needs. A coped joint is also lesslikely to open up after a few seasons ofexpansion and contraction.

Although you need a miter saw forcoping, the only specialty tools you needare a $10 coping saw and an assortmentof blades. A 15-tooth coping-saw bladeis the best all-around performer, espe-cially for simple chair rails and base-boards. But youll want 18 teeth (ormore) to negotiate the intricate cutsthat crown molding requires.

When installing a new blade, makesure the teeth face forward (the same asa standard handsaw) and tighten theblade securely.

Tom OBrien lives in New Milford,Conn., and is a contributing editor to Fine Homebuilding. Photos by Andy Engel.

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B Y T O M O B R I E N

Flat molding is straightforward

W Miter cut determines the profile. Althoughyou can trace the profile from one piece oftrim to the other, a 45 inside miter cutachieves the same purpose. An efficient car-penter chops all the profiles for a particularroom at the same time, then cuts each pieceof trim to length later.

Use a pencil to highlight thecutline. To make the profile ofthe molding more apparent,draw the flat edge of a pencillead across the inside edge ofthe miter cut.

4Angle the cut in-ward. Start the cutwith a few gentlepull strokes untilthe coping sawfinds its groove;then switch to longpush strokes.

Angle the blade into thework so that the face of thecut becomes slightly proudof the back side. This slightangle is called a back bevel,or back cut.

The back bevel allows minor adjustments to beaccomplished usinga few passes with awood rasp ratherthan a belt sander.

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118 FINE HOMEBUILDING

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STEP

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STEP Crown takes patience and a steady hand

If you measure your trim in milesrather than feet, you might wantto invest $29 in the CollinsCoping Foot (Collins Tool Co.;888-838-8988; www.collinstool.com). The coping foot is simplya curved baseplate that substi-tutes for the standard, flat basefound on a typical jigsaw. Themanufacturer offers a copingfoot to fit all commercially avail-able jigsaws. Most install with

the turn of a screw,though some sawsrequire a shim toposition the base-plate correctly.

With the copingfoot in place, thesaw is operatedupside down, whichtakes a little prac-tice but allows youto see the cutline

perfectly. The curved basemakes it easy to back-bevel abaseboard, but it was designedfor quickly negotiating the intri-cate twists and turns that crownmolding requires. Instructionsfor coping crown using a simplejig are included with the tool.

TURN YOUR JIGSAW INTO A SUPERCHARGED

COPING SAW

1 Place the crown molding upsidedown in the miter saw and at an angle between the fence and base.Then make a 45 cut to reveal theprofile for the cope.

Crown needs a steep back bevel.Because its installed on an angle, unlike baseboard, crown molding mustbe coped with a significant back bevel,or the two faces wont meet.

Its not easy to turn corners when saw-ing at such a steep angle, so the beststrategy is to cut as far as you can fromone end, back the blade out, and sneakup on the cut from another direction.

Close wont do. If the cope doesnt fitperfectly, a pencil serves to mark thehigh spots, which are removed easilywith a rasp or some sandpaper.

Fine-tune the curves. A medium-gritsanding sponge is particularly effectivefor shaping curved sections.

Work inward from both edges to en-sure that the last saw stroke separatesthe meaty center of the molding ratherthan the fragile outer edge.

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