How to make this crown molding

[Tony Truong]

Hello! I've looked around on how to build crown moldings. Some people use premade router bits and some people use a ts to make the custom groves.

What is the method for making crown like this:



And it ended up looking like:



Do I need stock thicker like 3"?

[Neil Brooks]

Tony,

A good introduction to the process can be found here.

[Tony Truong]

Ohh that was what I didn't understand.. How to make that large angled cut. That is much more clear now.

Is it possible to do that without a band saw? That's the only thing I dont have now.

[Tony Truong]

Ohh that was what I didn't understand.. How to make that large angled cut. That is much more clear now.

Is it possible to do that without a band saw? That's the only thing I dont have now.

Do you think it is too dangerous to make a jig like this on a table saw and cut angles? I think my table saw's blade can tilt too.. Would that be an okay way to go about making a cut?

[John TenEyck]

Tony, if you look closely I think you will see that your molding is made up several smaller pieces. They were milled individually, and then glued together to make the larger, finished product. To make that molding you don't need to make any large angled cuts on your tablesaw. I would make it from three pieces. The lower, coved section would be cut by passing a 3/4" thick piece of stock diagonally multiple times across the TS, raising the blade with each pass until you have reached the desired depth; I think you know what I'm talking about. After you've got the cove cut, you tilt your saw blade and cut off the edges to give yourself a 90 deg angle top and bottom. The middle piece is just a piece about 1/2 thick with a radius on one edge. The top piece is another 3/4" piece with an ogee (or is it Roman Ogee?) cut on the edge. Both the middle and top piece profiles are easily cut with a router bit. The radius on the bottom edge of the cove piece can also be cut with the router. Good luck.

[Joe Fabbri]

If the angle at which the design springs from the wall is 45 it's easy to do with a table saw, by just tilting the blade to 45, and resting the stock flat on the saw. If the angle is lower, such as 38, and if your saw doesn't tilt that far, which it probably doesn't, then you have to cut the opposite of that, by standing it upright and running the stock standing up against the saw. A little tricky, in trying to keep the wood flat against the fence, unless the stock is pretty thick you're using. You could also nail a dummy piece of wood against the back of the good piece of wood (not nailing through though), and run both pieces upright, in order to provide more stability.

Joe

[Tony Truong]

Tony, if you look closely I think you will see that your molding is made up several smaller pieces. They were milled individually, and then glued together to make the larger, finished product. To make that molding you don't need to make any large angled cuts on your tablesaw. I would make it from three pieces. The lower, coved section would be cut by passing a 3/4" thick piece of stock diagonally multiple times across the TS, raising the blade with each pass until you have reached the desired depth; I think you know what I'm talking about. After you've got the cove cut, you tilt your saw blade and cut off the edges to give yourself a 90 deg angle top and bottom. The middle piece is just a piece about 1/2 thick with a radius on one edge. The top piece is another 3/4" piece with an ogee (or is it Roman Ogee?) cut on the edge. Both the middle and top piece profiles are easily cut with a router bit. The radius on the bottom edge of the cove piece can also be cut with the router. Good luck.

Makes sense! Thanks.

[Tony Truong]

Makes sense! Thanks.

One other thing.. I just got a router. DO I need a router table to make those profiles or can I just run the the router by hand along the edge to do the same?

[Peter Quinn]

Yes, you can make the angled cuts on a TS with the stock standing up against the fence, but you can't split one wider board for two that way or the stock will drop on the blade at the end of the cut, and you will in any event have a lot of blade in play, so make sure you are comfortable with that, use feather boards and a push block to keep your hands away from harm. An angled jig could be used but you might not have enough height on the TS for the jig to function properly. The TS method will result in more waste unless you can use the off cut.

You can make those profiles without a router table, but it's easier with one, and a simple one can be fashioned for next to nothing, so there is no reason not to make one. It doesnt have to be much more than a small piece of melemine and a flat 2X4 with a cutout for the bit to work as a fence.

I like to run a saw kerf between each layer to include a spline to keep longer runs like this aligned if you will be gluing the layers together before attaching them to the case. Keeps things from playing twister once glue is applied.

[Jim Becker]

One other thing.. I just got a router. DO I need a router table to make those profiles or can I just run the the router by hand along the edge to do the same?

Safer to use a table and better results, too. You can make a quick and dirty "router table" with a piece of plywood that has a hole in it for the cutter along with mounting holes for the router base. Just clamp a straight piece of wood on for a fence and you're good to go. It's not really safe to run those edge profiles running a router free-hand down a narrow piece of stock.

[Tony Truong]

Hi guys, I finished the cove and ogee cuts for the crown. I just need to sand it smooth and glue them together.

Next question, how do I make baseboards? Are there any sites that has a walkthrough? Right now, I can only think of using the router to put a profile on the edge. How do you do something more complicated like

[Kurt Rosenzweig]

If your going to do a lot of molding you may wanna look at buying some more professional tools like a molder or a shaper. Some really good deals can be found on Craigslist.

[Neil Brooks]

Otherwise ... sometimes you do it gluing up several pieces -- each with one or two pieces of the overall profile routed into it.

There are also some very fancy router bits that can cut elegant profiles. One brand I might recommend is MLCS woodworking. That's the URL for their website, too. Just remove the space, and add ".com" after it.

[Tony Truong]

Otherwise ... sometimes you do it gluing up several pieces -- each with one or two pieces of the overall profile routed into it.

There are also some very fancy router bits that can cut elegant profiles. One brand I might recommend is MLCS woodworking. That's the URL for their website, too. Just remove the space, and add ".com" after it.

Thanks Neil!

I'm very happy with the crown pieces I made. Sanding them smooth is a lot of work though

I will get one of the mlcs baseboard router bits. Looks like it will work nicely.

[Neil Brooks]

Thanks Neil!

I'm very happy with the crown pieces I made. Sanding them smooth is a lot of work though

Your next project -- should you decide to accept it -- is to Google "sanding mop"

I'm guessing you'll like it