# Routing Inside a Stock 1x4



## Eddie_T (Sep 17, 2009)

I am building a small movable kitchen island ~ 30"x36". I want to use *decorative pieces at the corners fashioned from 1"x4"x~30" stock. What would be the easiest way to route inside the 3.5" width.* My thought is to build the case out of plywood attach the vertical decorative pieces 2 at each corner un-mitered placing a vertical dowel to fill the open corner. I don't have a plan to share as I am just winging it. I have three portable routers, a .25" trim router, a .25" fixed base and a .5" fixed base. I also have a Stumpy Nubs horizontal router table for the .5" motor that I have never used. I haven't done any woodworking in several years as I have been involved in care giving.


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

Can't quite picture what you're doing from the description. Could you draw a simple picture and indicate what you intend to produce? Take a picture with your cell phone and post it. You can just use arrows to point to what you want to wind up with.

In general I always prefer to use a router table whenever possible. Putting a roundover on the four 4x4 legs would be easy, although I'd keep what I assume will be the four legs, as square as possible for the ply to mount against. 4x4 is also pretty heavy for a kitchen, perhaps you could cut a taper so the legs thin out toward the floor. This sounds like a very practical table. I'd seriously consider gluing up some hard wood to make the top. Finish the top with food friendly oil. It will look really nice that way. The appearance of this table will depend a loton your lumber selection. Look for pretty tight grain, and consider checking out Oak for the legs. Some stores have this kind of material in their stair making area.

Reading your post over again, I think you're planning to use 1x4 to fashion the legs. If so you can still taper the material, then glue two pieces together to make the legs. Then use some hefty quarter round on the inside joint of each leg, which will add strength and a more finished look. Extend the quarter round straiht up and fasten it to the table sides.

Once you get the legs together, use a rounhdover on the legs. Glue and clamp carefully so the two parts of each leg don't have any gaps. I don't think I'd want the legs splayed out, just straight down. 

Hope I read this right.

Hope this is helpful.


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## Eddie_T (Sep 17, 2009)

Sorry I wasn't clear with my OP. The 1x4 strips are decorative and will be glued onto the corners of the case. They are not legs, the case will sit on 4 fixed casters concealed with base molding.

I just need help with the best routing technique to make the 1x4s decorative. This is not it but shows similar corner treatment.


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

If you are making "L" shaped corner pieces with a mitered joint, glue them together then run your router down the corner before cutting them to length and installing them on the cabinet.

If you are butting together at the corner, rip one leg narrower by the thickness of the board it will be butted to and then glue up ,after gluing and sanding flush at the joint run the round over bit on the router table,or freehand to round off the point. Then cut to fit the vertical.

If you are making the picture frame corners like shown and are asking about the inside profile , you will have to route the stock on the side that goes inside before you miter the corners to make the pictures frame. You can not get a good looking inside corner by cutting out the center and routing the inside as the corners will come out round and not square and look odd.
Make up the 2 picture frames, miter one side of each and either glue together before or after you install on the corner.

Herb


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

lay your material face up on a solid work surface...
clamp it in place...
route one edge to the profile of your choice..
cut your pieces to size and miter the corners so that the profile is to thee inside of your frame...
splines for this joint are a plus...

.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

I used stopped cove profiles on the edges of the stiles I used for some home made wainscoting. I stopped the profiles about an inch before they met the rail and base board. It doesn’t sound that fancy but it looked pretty good and it’s really easy to do with a bearing guided cove bit.


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## TWheels (May 26, 2006)

If the corner pieces just below the top are examples of what you are trying to do, it seems to me a template guide and dish cutter bit in a hand held router ia what you need. If it is the pieces on the bottom corners as @Cherryville Chuck suggested a cove bit or perhaps a classical profile or some ogee profile, maybe easiest in a router table


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## TenGees (Sep 12, 2012)

The corners in the picture seem to use a profile like the drawer fronts and doors. Rather than cutting out the 1x4, it might be easier to cut strips and make rectangles then use a bearing guided bit or route one edge of the all strips and then miter them like picture frames.


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## Eddie_T (Sep 17, 2009)

Thanks for all the inputs, I think I will try a hand held router with the piece clamped near a fence to guide the router. I may route a cove to ease the outer edge transitioning to the vertical dowel that will fill the open corner (see OP).


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

A totally different approach, Ed, is to apply the flat stock first then install the mouldings on top. Basically run off a bunch of the profile you like, on your router table. Cut whatever miters you need, and install.
You don't necessarily need to cut the mouldings to size first; you can profile both edges of a 1x4 or whatever size you have available, then rip off the profiled edges to the width you want.
Believe it or not I do that handheld, with my basic stock clamped or taped down. I usually have an additional piece laying behind the work piece, as additional support for the base plate.
I know several of the members here are probably quaking at the thought, but in all the years I've been doing it that way, I've never had a bad incident. Like so many things in woodworking there are multiple ways to achieve something.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

I took a close look at e corners in the pic you posted; I think the mouldings were after-applied...


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## Eddie_T (Sep 17, 2009)

Before posting I hadn't a clue as to how to approach the problem and now I am seeing a solution coming that may involve a combination of suggestions. That's the beauty of friendly forums such as this, one doesn't have to reinvent the wheel but can incorporate the wisdom of others.


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

Cherryville Chuck said:


> I used stopped cove profiles on the edges of the stiles I used for some home made wainscoting. I stopped the profiles about an inch before they met the rail and base board. It doesn’t sound that fancy but it looked pretty good and it’s really easy to do with a bearing guided cove bit.


That is a good way to do it, kind of like a plyinth block as long as the stops are consistent it would look pretty good.
Herb


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## woodknots (Mar 7, 2012)

I like @DaninVan 's idea the best - make the case out of flat ply, profile both edges of your flat stock, rip the profiled edges on the table saw, rinse and repeat until you have enough "molding". Then glue and pin nail to attach the profiled edges to your plywood case. Same as if you were making shadow boxes on a wall below wainscotting.


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## Eddie_T (Sep 17, 2009)

Herb Stoops said:


> That is a good way to do it, kind of like a plyinth block as long as the stops are consistent it would look pretty good.
> Herb


Thanks, I had to look up plinth block. I didn't know what to call them but plan to use them under the thingy we're talking about to keep the base from being straight.


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

Eddie_T said:


> Thanks, I had to look up plinth block. I didn't know what to call them but plan to use them under the thingy we're talking about to keep the base from being straight.


Sorry ED, I forg0t not everyone knows what a Plinth Block is,(I didn't even spell it right),

Here are some ways they are used. They let the installer run the moldings straight and butted into the plinth block at the inside and outside corners and openings. They still use it in high end houses.

The Wonderful World of Plinth Blocks - The Joy of Moldings.com

Herb


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## Eddie_T (Sep 17, 2009)

Herb Stoops said:


> Sorry ED, I forg0t not everyone knows what a Plinth Block is,(I didn't even spell it right),
> 
> Here are some ways they are used. They let the installer run the moldings straight and butted into the plinth block at the inside and outside corners and openings. They still use it in high end houses.
> 
> ...


Hey, I appreciate it! I used them when I built my house, I just didn't know what they were called. I didn't want to miter or cope the joints in this redwood molding in the bathroom.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Ed, the 'plinth' is specifically at the bottom; acts as a base. Almost all classical sculptures sit on a plinth of some sort.
I'm sure someone will correct me but the catalogues seem to just call the upper ones 'corner blocks'...for all practical purposes it doesn't really matter what they're called so long as in your own mind you remember that a plinth is really a base, found at the bottom of something.
Another term that's widely misused is 'soffit'. It's the underside of a structure. Often an open staircase is actually paneled in some fashion on the underside; that's a soffit, same as the underside of your roof overhang.
Barge boards and eaves are often mislabeled as another example.


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

Eddie_T said:


> Hey, I appreciate it! I used them when I built my house, I just didn't know what they were called. I didn't want to miter or cope the joints in this redwood molding in the bathroom.


Cool I like it, came out real good.
Herb


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

DaninVan said:


> Ed, the 'plinth' is specifically at the bottom; acts as a base. Almost all classical sculptures sit on a plinth of some sort.
> I'm sure someone will correct me but the catalogues seem to just call the upper ones 'corner blocks'...for all practical purposes it doesn't really matter what they're called so long as in your own mind you remember that a plinth is really a base, found at the bottom of something.
> Another term that's widely misused is 'soffit'. It's the underside of a structure. Often an open staircase is actually paneled in some fashion on the underside; that's a soffit, same as the underside of your roof overhang.
> Barge boards and eaves are often mislabeled as another example.




Is that a bust of Stick when he was a boy? 

Herb


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## Eddie_T (Sep 17, 2009)

DaninVan said:


> Ed, the 'plinth' is specifically at the bottom; acts as a base. Almost all classical sculptures sit on a plinth of some sort.
> I'm sure someone will correct me but the catalogues seem to just call the upper ones 'corner blocks'...for all practical purposes it doesn't really matter what they're called so long as in your own mind you remember that a plinth is really a base, found at the bottom of something.
> Another term that's widely misused is 'soffit'. It's the underside of a structure. Often an open staircase is actually paneled in some fashion on the underside; that's a soffit, same as the underside of your roof overhang.
> Barge boards and eaves are often mislabeled as another example.


You're right but when I googled plinth some of the hits were in upper corners of doorways.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

*Basically*



Eddie_T said:


> You're right but when I googled plinth some of the hits were in upper corners of doorways.


Exactly; once the info gets uh, 'misstated' it's there forever. That's why I said it doesn't matter how you refer to it as long as you're clear in your own mind that in fact it's very similar to a 'pedestal', ie a base installation.
In any case your's looks great!

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/pedestal
If someone can offer an explanation on how a plinth differs from a pedestal you've got my full attention!


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