Copemaster - Copemaster Coping Machine

Editor's Review: New Machine Copes Molding Automatically

The Copemaster is a coping machine that shapes one piece of molding to fit the contour of an adjoining piece--a technique that, until now, was done by hand. You use the machine to cope the first piece of molding freehand, and it becomes the pattern for all the rest.

I got to try out the Copemaster on a piece of 4-1/2-in. crown molding. It took me about two minutes, start to finish. The cut was clean, and the machine was easy to use. Thomas Taylor, a finish carpenter from Fairfield, Conn., who also was trying out the Copemaster for the first time, coped 26 pieces of base and crown in about 40 minutes. He said the same task would have taken a couple of hours by hand.

The Copemaster has another big payoff. Once the pattern is made, a house full of molding can be coped by anybody, which frees you up to do other things.

Unfortunately, this nifty gizmo comes with a big price tag. Production finish carpenters might recoup the cost pretty fast, but it probably wouldn't be worth it for the rest of us. So we'll have to continue coping by hand until Copemasters start showing up at local rental centers.

Editor Test Results: