# type of router bit



## papaw (Feb 28, 2014)

making shoe molding for my house. new to routing, and don't know what type of bit to use. have tried roman ogee, looks ok,but really want something like a quarter round. using 1 inch pine for shoe, baseboards are 1 x 6.with a space of maybe 1 1/2 inch gap between baseboard and floor at some points (old house and floor has settled at some points). i will be cutting my shoe molding to cover the gap. i know nothing about router bits. my workforce will handle 1/4 or 1/2 bits.


----------



## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Hi Papaw and welcome to the forum. There are various shoe moldings that are used as you can see in this link. https://www.google.ca/search?q=shoe...yDozkoASmmILoBQ&ved=0CCgQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=861
Quarter round is one of them but if you want to try and hide a 1 1/2" gap then I wouldn't go that route. First of all, a 1 1/2" radius round over bit is going to be very pricey in a quality bit. I think the list price on an Amana is around $140 for example. The second thing is that it will stick out away from the wall so far that it will look odd. 
A better choice is to use stock that is about 1/2" thick and put a profile like this on it. http://cdn.eagleamerica.com/images/uploads/169-2015_p.jpg

I would look at trying to level the floor as best you can first.


----------



## Shop guy (Nov 22, 2012)

The 1 1/2 inch gap is going to be the biggest problem. As Charles said I would suggest you try to level the floors as best you can. Any trim to cover that large a gap is going to look funny.


----------



## MAFoElffen (Jun 8, 2012)

papaw said:


> making shoe molding for my house. new to routing, and don't know what type of bit to use. have tried roman ogee, looks ok,but really want something like a quarter round. using 1 inch pine for shoe, baseboards are 1 x 6.with a space of maybe 1 1/2 inch gap between baseboard and floor at some points (old house and floor has settled at some points). i will be cutting my shoe molding to cover the gap. i know nothing about router bits. my workforce will handle 1/4 or 1/2 bits.


So... your baseboards are 1x6. Was your baseboard flush with the floor at one time? ... and now there is 1-1/2" gaps at some places from settling?

If baseboard was at one time flush with the floor and the floor settled out from underneath that wall and baseboard by 1-1/2"(!?!) then... I have to agree that my priority would be shoring and leveling the floor from underneath.

If it didn't start flush with the floor, then pulling the baseboard and cheating it further down the wall may be in order.

Shoe moulding is also called a "Base Shoe." You use that to the add depth to tall base moulding, fill small gaps between a finished floor and a tall base, breakup and complement profiles of a tall baseboard. etc. It is usually a quarter-round profile, but the dimension might be 1/2x1 0r 3/4x1-1/2... 

Okay, so that's some background. For what you are doing it would have to be about 3/8"-1/2" wide by 2-1/2-3" tall. Why that thin? Because you are going to need to cheat it (bend it to the contours of the floor) so it needs to be able to bend some. Also, it may have to be thinner than a normal base shoe, because you are going taller to try to fill that 1-1/2" gap.... Why 2-1/2 to 3" tall? you need something to nail through, into the baseboard (and maybe a few studs). Being you have 1-1/2" gap in places, some of those places will also need to be fir'ed out to prevent the trim from falling into that and keep it parallel to the baseboard... Cheating something down 1-1/2", if you don't fir it out underneath (in that gap) it's going to want to twist.

Besides the integrity of the floor and being able to support weight, here's the problem of creating a Base shoe to fill a gap like along a 10 foot wall. Say the base moulding is flush with the floor in the corners and there was only one 1-1/2" gap somewhere along that... That would mean visually, the top of the base moulding above the shoe molding (say 3" high) would be 3" in the corners and 4-1/2 at where it needed to be contoured to the dip in the floor...

Most people pick a quarter round contour for base shoe, because it's easier to keep clean and doesn't catch as much dirt/dust as say an ogee. But some people that didn't have that concern and wanted something more intricate just had me put in thin narrow window casing, which added more to the profile and took care of any gaps that you can get with tall baseboards.

I hope that helps... But again, like others, Let me say that I have concerns when something settles 1-1/2" and is left that way.


----------



## papaw (Feb 28, 2014)

thanks, this is new baseboards and shoe i'm putting on. it is a old house 1950sh.
i have replaced all windows and doors, and framed with 1x4 on doors and i'm putting 1x6 on floor. this is old school (so am i). floor has settled over the years. space my be closer to 1 inch. thinking of going with a roman ogee, that will match the baseboard i put down.some rooms have no baseboards, so i guess something is better than nothing.thanks for the advice. im' new to routing and i never been on any kind of community system before. it is really nice to be able to have someone to run ideas though


----------



## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Papaw that's 3 of us in row that has expressed concern about the sag. Just because the house was built in the 50s isn't an excuse. Lots were built back then that are straighter and more level than much newer ones. If you not qualified to diagnose the reason why then I would find someone that is. The two things I would be concerned about is foundation trouble and whether or not the floor is a load bearing structure for the wall and what ever is above it. If it is a serious structural issue the house could possibly collapse on top of you in a severe windstorm or an earthquake.


----------



## MAFoElffen (Jun 8, 2012)

Most of the houses I had to shore up just happened to be circa 'early 1900 then the '70'es (See footnote 1). 

If it an outside wall, then there's a foundation problem. If it's a wall away from an outside wall, then it probably has a beam under that wall. (if weight bearing) All it takes (for most of the strict codes around here) is a 2'x2' concrete pad. I usually dug down a few inches and put a 2"x6" frame around it and drug a bag of concrete down and mixed it in place, with few pieces of rebar and a post bracket wired inside of it. When it "Kicks," lay down an asphalt shingle on the bottom of the bracket. Jack the beam. Measure and cut the post. Shim to level. Nail the brackets. Nail in nail plates and hurricane straps to hold the post and beam together.

1950's construction is easy to fend with. Older, turn of the century 1900 was more intensive (wood block). Those usually took jacking the house high enough to install new beams.

Footnote- (1)Yes, somewhere in the seventies, someone had an idea to build differently to save time and money(? I don't know), and they started hanging beam brackets over the lips of the foundation instead of putting those onto the foundations... I've had to shore and relevel a number of those.


----------



## papaw (Feb 28, 2014)

thanks for the info. i have a contractor coming thursday to check it out.


----------



## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Let us know how it turns out papaw.


----------

