Shep

I said this at BT when I first saw that tip in FHB magazine- if you can't cut a reasonably straight line freehand, or using the back edge of a shingle, you shouldn't be doing roofing. If you're shingling a valley, run the shingles long, snap a line where you want to cut, and use a hook knife to cut the shingles.

I've been installing crown for over 30 years, have probably coped thousands of joints,and I still prefer to cope whenever possible. For one, I can spring the piece with the cope into the the previous piece, and get a very tight joint. I also can adjust the fit of the crown a bit by tapping both pieces up or down.

At this point, I can do an average room by myself in a few hours, including the copes. I think its faster, since a coped joint will adjust to an out of square inside corner, where a mitered joint has to be perfect.

About the only thing I have to caulk when I'm done is the crown to wall, and crown to ceiling, joint.

I do still cope the old timer way, by hand with a coping saw. One of these days I'm going to try the mini grinder and disk method, tho.