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best way to do the 45 degree or other degree moulding cutting?

11K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  Mike Finley 
#1 · (Edited)
I have a question, I did the floor moulding inside the closet this weekend, I choose closet to start first because want to see how difficult/easy it is as this is my first time also...

I found this is not as easy as I thought... in fact, may be difficult for a perfect cut... so I would like to know if you can provide me any tricks/tips on doing a perfect length/angle cut for this stuff, I want to better prepare when doing the actual area...

I discover there are inner/outside corner which is not 90 degree, so in theory, assume 45 degree cut is not correct... so what should it be done easiest and most accurate... do I need to measure every corner before cutting... also what is the best tool for this cut... I have now both table saw and chop saw... I immagine chop saw is easiest.... I used table saw for the closet find it difficult to find the point of cut, adjusting angle is ok... but cutting the right line is a bit hard....


anyhow, waiting to hear from you ... thank you...

never mind, I found a web site...
 
#3 ·
A real simple trick to doing trim work of any kind is to create some cheaters. Don't know what the real name for these, is maybe some people call them templates? Anyways, the idea is you take some of the material you are installing for example base board and you cut (2) 12" long pieces of it. Then miter the ends of each piece, I will do an inside corner and an outside corner on each one, then you use these pieces to help you create your moldings.

Basically you can measure and cut one piece at a time, (pros will cut everything at the same time) I like to cut 3-4 pieces at at time. And use your templates to help you out, stick them in the corner and see how they look, often can eye ball the changes to the cuts needed. If I stick them in the corner and the cuts are a bit off I take the templates to the miter saw and adjust the cuts, once they are perfect I make the same cuts on the actual pieces to go in.

They are also useful to test fit and measure. I will place one in the corner and but it up to the final piece and see how the fit is, often I will cut the finished piece just a bit too long at first, place it in place and stick the template into the corner to test the fit, then cut just enough off to get a perfect fit. It's hard to cut one piece of a corner perfectly without the other piece in place and using the one of the template pieces as the missing 2nd piece of the corner simplifies this for you.
 
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