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Tips & Techniques

Duct Tape Keeps Miters Together

Line up the mitered corners of the trim in out-of-square corners

Issue 278 - Oct/Nov 2018
Article Image

I recently had to install some base trim on old, out-of-square porch columns. I couldn’t just slap the molding against the four sides of the column and nail them, because the twisted column meant the corners wouldn’t align. Instead, I lined up the mitered corners of the trim pieces, making sure the miters were flush, and then I taped the joints with duct tape. I used my brad nailer with stainless-steel brads to nail through the duct tape to secure the trim. Once I removed the tape, I finished up with a dose of Big Stretch caulk.

—Steve Beese, Winston-Salem, N.C.

Drawings: Charles Miller

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  1. User avater
    PearlGWilson | Nov 03, 2018 01:38am | #1

    Excellent work you do here. Keep it up!

  2. bellemac | Nov 06, 2018 08:57am | #2

    Thanks for the tip, if Duct tape is not your style, cyanoacrylate (or CA in shorthand) is the fastest setting of all adhesives. A variety of formulations exist from ultra-thin to thick gels, and with setting times that vary from just one or two seconds to over a minute. With an accelerator it is a unbeatable combination and the equal of the all mighty duct tape. IMO

  3. User avater
    KarinDYang | Jan 10, 2019 03:21am | #3

    Good job you have done here!

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