Getting Ready For Crown Molding

Nothing too major this weekend but I did achieve the goals that I set out to do, so it was a good weekend. The main objective was to get the 2 hutches ready for the crown molding. Putting on crown molding requires a compound miter. I’ve done zillion of them. The exterior window sills have crown molding underneath them. When I had to rebuild the window sills from the butchers that put up the asbestos siding I had to make more than 80 outside compound miter cuts. I became a compound miter machine.

For a compound miter cut you cut both a both a bevel and angle cut on both pieces and then fit them together. It is how a picture frame is put together. This can be done by hand but it is very difficult. Most people will use a compound miter saw to do these cuts. Notice in the picture below how the saw is tilted (bevel cut) and angled at the same time. This is a compound miter cut.



The problem I have run into is the standard 10" compound miter saw, like the one I have, won’t cut 1X6 crown molding. I will need to rent a radial arm compound miter saw. This will allow me to make longer cuts and maintain the bevel and angle all the way through the cut. Because it will be a rental I need to have all my ducks in a row. The plan is to pick up the saw around noon tomorrow and have it back by 5:00 so I only pay a half-day rental. Five hours should be plenty of time to do 4 outside corners, but I don’t want to be rushed. I only have a finite amount of this salvage 1X6 crown molding. There is room for error, but not much.

Also today I put the feet on my e-solution hutch. These were a liquidation item I got from Van Dykes Restorers. I got them at a great price but I couldn’t screw it up putting them on because I didn’t have extra and Van Dykes no longer stocks them. I had to cut a short piece off the ends so they would fit. This was a measure-4-times-cut-once kind of thing.

(Notice the use of the hand model. $150 and hour and it took 3 hours to get this shot! Professional my ass.)



The top part of the Frankenstein Hutch is stripped and ready for paint. I had to fill a lot of small nail holes and a big gash in one corner. It looks worse than it is, and most of it will be behind the crown molding. I use MinWax High Performance wood filler. It is a 2-part epoxy. Kind of like bondo for wood. I started to strip the e-solution hutch, but because the glue for the feet has not fully set I had to put it up on blocks while I stripped. I didn’t want to put any stress on the feet. This made the whole thing very unstable and I was only able to strip the area at the top where the crown molding will go.



I have no room to work. The pieces are too big to move around that much so I pretty much have to work on the where they are. In the picture below you can see the bottom part of the Frankenstein hutch in the foreground. It is painted and ready to go. To the left is the top part. Behind that (not in the picture) is the dishwasher and another salvage cabinet that I’m probably not going to use. To the right is the refrigerator, also not in picture. In the middle is the bottom half of a mahogany sideboard. The top part with the mirror is in the other room. The house came with 6 claw foot tubs. I traded two for that sideboard and it has been in the way ever since. Beyond that is the e-solution hutch, an over stuffed chair that I no longer like, a big cast iron sink w/ drain board, a claw foot tub, some flooring (grrr!) and some doors. The floor is a tangled mess of tools and extension cords. It is a wonder I haven’t broken anything yet.




Also today I went for a very loooong walk and went to a couple of open-houses. I like to get ideas about what to do with my house. One was a 1912 sort-of Victorian and the other was a 1901 Victorian. Oh brother, I won’t go into it now, but needless to say the only ideas I came away with were what not to do with my house.