Moulding with rounded corners

paulmar · 09-11-2009, 09:38 PM

The 22.5-degree cuts are a great idea, but it led me to thinking "Why not use two small pieces instead of just one to make it blend in with the corner even better?" So in total, you would use 4 pieces of molding for the corner, each cut at 15 degrees. It took me a couple of hours to get it right for just one corner, but once you have one done, it's easy to use as a template for the others. WARNING: Do not attempt to hold the tiny piece of molding with your hand while you cut it with a miter saw! Use duct tape or heavy duty packing tape to keep your 1-inch long piece from getting damaged. A wood file also helps to fine tune the cuts for a perfect fit, and if you get a file that's about the same width as your molding, you can file small flat indentations into the rounded baseboard to make it easier to set the pieces in place for nailing. If you think the 3-piece corner looks nice and formal, try the 4-piece corner and everyone will be asking you who you hired to do the molding

Nestor_Kelebay · 09-12-2009, 05:17 PM

Making those small pieces could be done safely on a miter saw. You just use a long piece and cut the same distance off one end, moving the blade from one side of the center line to the other side with every cut. Also, every second piece you'd cut would be scrap, but I'd rather throw away a bit of wood than risk cutting off a finger.

That'd be best done by clamping a wood stop to the fence so that all pieces are cut to the same length.

If I were doing it, I'd cut them all a tiny bit shorter than they needed to be, nail them into place, then apply a latex caulk to fill in the gaps, and remove the excess caulk with a damp sponge so that only the gaps had caulk in them. Latex caulk shrinks as it dries, so you'd have to caulk twice; the second time to fill in shrinkage. But, after painting it would look fine.