# coping oak baseboard.



## mbokie5 (Oct 30, 2011)

I have found it next to impossible to use a regular coping saw for coping this oak.

Does anyone know of a better way?


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## kp91 (Sep 10, 2004)

Cut a 45 degree angle on the baseboard to give you the perfect outline for the cut. You can then cut with a coping saw or a jig saw.

If you have a lot to do, they sell a coping shoe for your jigsaw to make it easier.

http://www.collinstool.com/base.php?page=collins_coping_foot.htm

http://www.hartvilletool.com/product/851/jig-saw-accessories


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## mbokie5 (Oct 30, 2011)

I knew about the 45. I also knew there was a jig like the 2nd one, but did not have enough posts to link that.

Have you used either of those rigs?

Is there a best blade?


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## Semipro (Mar 22, 2013)

N/a
Do not know if is kosher but could not find coping saw once used my dermal 
a small sanding drum cut the 45 and ground it down, work great do not know if I would want do a whole house.
John


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## Phil P (Jul 25, 2010)

mbokie5 said:


> Have you used either of those rigs?
> 
> Is there a best blade?


I use a Collins Coping Foot for scribes (copes). It requires a T244D blade - no other will do (it has a fair amount of side set for cutting curves) - it also requires a simpler jigsaw so the Bosch and Festool models with extra blade guides won't accept it. For those who've never seen one, the "boat-shaped" silver foot on the jigsaw is the Collins Foot










For safest/fastest use you should make yourself a simple box jig to hold the moulding you are scribing. 










Works well and is very fast. I have done some very big jobs with this tool. A good coping saw man is almost as fast for the first couple of cuts, but after 30 or so you do tend to slow down using a manual saw - the jigger never tires!










_Above: Waste cuts to speed-up scribe (cope). On simpler skirting (baseboard) cuts this isn't necessary
Below: The scribe (cope) being made. This never fails to scare the bejesus out of quite a few of my colleagues but it's actually quite safe so long as you keep the "spare" hand behind the blade. The jigsaw is used inverted and from beneath to allow you to make a clean cut (the blade is cutting downwards into the finish side), add back clearance and to give visibility on the cut line_










_Below: A completed scribed (coped) joint. This is an extremely deep sprung architrave moulding (more like cornice/crown moulding) in solid oak which would have possibly pulled apart had the joint been mitred. The plasterwork was also a couple of degrees off square_










That saw is a very beaten-up old Metabo D-handle jigsaw - nothing special - when it died it was replaced by another old jigsaw, this time a body grip model which is easier to manouver in sharp corners

Regards

Phil


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## mbokie5 (Oct 30, 2011)

Awesome!

Thanks to all. I can pick up the blue jig for cheap and will order the foot just to see how it goes.

Thanks again, most kindly.


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## Bradleytavares (Feb 25, 2012)

You could do it on a table saw after you cut the 45 degree. Makes the long point real sharp.


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## Phil P (Jul 25, 2010)

Bradleytavares said:


> You could do it on a table saw after you cut the 45 degree. Makes the long point real sharp.


Hi Bradley

Nice idea, and there is (was?) a machine out there which does (did?) something along those lines called a Copemaster but that's a whole different ball game, not to mention expensive (at circa $2300 - or rather it was, sadly the makers seem to have disappeared). 

As for using a table saw I can see a few rather major problems with that - skirting board (baseboard) can often be really long pieces, even in oak it's not uncommon to have to scribe (cope) pieces 10 or 12ft long which would be simply unmanageable on a table saw IMHO, especially single handed (the Copemaster moved the blade relative to the material). Having tried this with smaller pieces I have to tell you it isn't easy to make a good cut without either over cutting or undercutting (both time wasters) and on some deeply shaped mouldings the saw blade can break through in the wrong place. Another issue will be the hassle of dragging both a table saw and a mitre saw around site with you (together with the box load of other tools like pinner, caulking gun, block plane, jigsaw, etc)

Regards

Phil


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

1405 - Crown45™ - Milescraft
8401 - Trim45™ - Milescraft


1405 Crown45 - Crown Molding Cutting Jig from Milescraft - YouTube
Trim 45 Carpentry Aid - YouTube

==


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## Bradleytavares (Feb 25, 2012)

Phil P, seems to work for me. Only offering an option. To each his own...


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## mbokie5 (Oct 30, 2011)

Phil P, after revisiting this thread, I must note that you put some real effort into your post and I should thank you a little more kindly there, Bud. So thank you a little more kindly. 

How would the table saw option work out? Wouldn't the thickness of the blade leave flat spots? 

Maybe I'm thinking about that wrong all together. I don't see how it works. I do own a decent table saw. 

Glad I checked back on this.


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## Phil P (Jul 25, 2010)

mbokie5 said:


> How would the table saw option work out? Wouldn't the thickness of the blade leave flat spots?


Hi again and thank you. Those photographs were taken on a job a few years back where I was installing what seemed like a million square feet of oak panelling, mouldings, etc.

I've played around with using a table saw in the past. You still make a mitre cut on the chop saw first and then use a pencil to highlight the profile edge (face edge) of the mitre. Then feed the skirting/baseboard into the saw end on as though doing a rip. You stop where the blade meets the pencil line. Move left (or right) and repeat quite a few times. This cuts a series of slots which look not unlike a comb.You can then clean-up by "tracing" the line whilst moving the timber across the blade. On a contractor saw with a 2.2mm narrow kerf/1.6mm body blade (the type saw we have on site) attempting to just pull the material sideways across the timber just doesn't work and can be downright dangerous unless you've sawn away the waste first. 

To my mind there are several problems with this method - it takes an inordinate amount of care to get a good joint and you need to raise the blade and pull back the crown guard to see what you are doing (which gives me, personally, a problem with the H&S rules over here), but more to the point the process is slow (against using a Collins Coping Foot) and it just won't work if you are handling really long pieces - like a room-length piece of skirting/baseboard (at maybe 12 to 16ft long in 7 x 1in oak). When I'm on what you call trim carpentry in the USA I find it better to have a very portable kit that I can take to the material rather than the other way around. This is especially so because the average bedroom in a hotel, say, will have 5 to 8 scribes (copes) and I'll be doing 4 or more of them in a day (so probably 25 to 30 scribes/copes each day). Time really is money, which is why I still have an interest in the Chamar jig (prototype) referred to elsewhere on this site

Regards

Phil

P.S. Could you perhaps be a little more friendly and edit your profile to put in a name, even a nickname, please? It's so much more friendly than calling you "n/a" and this really is a friendly forum (BTW I don't care if your name is Bert but you call yourself Ernie. Really)


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## mbokie5 (Oct 30, 2011)

Changed it to my real first name.


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## Phil P (Jul 25, 2010)

mbokie5 said:


> Changed it to my real first name.


Thank you. Helps make the forum a friendlier place

Regards

Phil


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## mbokie5 (Oct 30, 2011)

Phil P said:


> Thank you. Helps make the forum a friendlier place
> 
> Regards
> 
> Phil


I hear ya bruther. A few minutes with me and you would feel like you're in that old truck looking for a possum to skin.  They don't call me Billy Mike for nuthin'.

I sold my old car. :cray:

But I will get my oak coped now. Thanks to the helpful friendly folks here and yourself.


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