Make Cuts for Crown Molding
Cutting trim is more complicated than it looks, and cutting crown molding is the most complicated of all. Crown molding is designed to span the upper horizontal corners of the room, stretching from the edge of the ceiling to the edge of the wall. It doesn't sit flat against the wall like baseboard does, but is tucked up at an angle. So when you cut pieces to go around a corner, the cuts have to be angled to accommodate the angle of the wood. The cuts through the thickness of the wood also have to be angled so they fit together in the corners. A compound double-angle is needed, in other words, and both parts of it have to be right. A tilting power miter saw is essential, because it allows you to deal with both angles at once. But the real trick is to constantly visualize how the trim pieces will fit together and cut the correct angles, even when you've got the trim upside-down and backward on your saw.
Instructions
1. Standing on your ladder, measure the shortest wall of the room, going from the upper top corner, where the wall meets the ceiling.
2. Lay your first piece of molding face-down on your workbench, so you're working on its back side. With your tri-square and pencil, mark a 45-degree angled line across the width of the trim, starting about two inches from the end of the trim and angling inward toward the middle. If it is going to an inner corner, the bottom side of the piece should be at the outer point of the angle; if it's for an outer corner, the top of the piece should be at the point.
3. Now hold the piece up horizontally, the face toward you, with the wall in the background and the piece positioned the way will it go on the wall. This allows you to visually confirm the direction that the angled cut through the wood needs to go so it will be flush to the other corner piece. If it's an inner corner, the cut will angle outward from the face toward the back, so the back of the piece is longer; for an outer corner, the angle will travel inward, so the face of the trim is longer.
4. Still holding the piece horizontally in front of you, mark lightly with your pencil on the edge of the trim, drawing the angle of the line going in the direction that it will need to go through the thickness of the wood. Do this freehand; it doesn't need to be the right degree of angle, it just needs to be pointing in the right direction.
5. Put the piece down on your miter saw platform, face down, with the line that you drew on the back facing up at the blade. Swivel the blade to the correct 45-degree side so it is directly over the angle line across the back. The bottom of the piece, where you marked your freehand angled line through the thickness of the wood, should be facing you as well, so you can see the direction of the angle by looking down at the edge of the trim. Now tilt your miter blade in the same direction as the angle, setting the tilt of the blade at 45 degrees.
6. Cut down into the line you've marked on the back of the piece, making sure that you're accounting for the thickness of the blade. It should come down to the wood entirely on one side of the straight line, and then angle into the wood in the direction you marked.
7. Measure the trim from your new cut to get the full size you originally determined you needed for the first wall. Measure from the longest point of the cut you just made (i.e., if the face side is longer, measure the face; if the back side is longer, measure on the back). Either way, transfer the measurement onto the back of the piece and proceed as before, marking a line across the width, finding the correct angle from there and cutting on the miter. The piece is now ready to be hung.
Tags: back piece, , thickness wood, through thickness,