Coping chairail..should be easy but it’s not !!
afternoon guys,
i’m not a contractor just working on my own home. I’m trying to get pics to load to better understand my problem but it’s not working yet. i have beadboard wainscoat up on the walls and am trying to fit my first 2 pieces of chair rail. the first piece is a butt cut on each end at the farthest wall from the door then the next piece will need to be coped. the chair rail i am using is the kind that has the relief cut to go over the beadboard, in other words it’s not flat on the back side. The first piece butts against a window casing on one end, no problem there. The other end should butt against the wall BUT the bottom part of the chair rail is hitting the beadboard on the opposing wall because the beadboard is about 3/16″ thick, so i notched out the bottom of chairail so that the top of rail hits the wall flush and the bottom hits the beadboard flush. Now i cut a test piece and coped it to fit but what is happening is that the bottom part of the coped piece is about 3/16″ too long because it touches the beadboard. How do you make allowances for the added thickness of your beadboard when you cope so that your joint fits nice? if i angle the coped piece up to about 30 degrees it fits perfect but not when it’s level. I realize this is probably very hard to understand they way i explained it…i’ll do my best to get some pics to show what i mean. If by some miracle someone understood any of this , any advice would be great,
Steve
Replies
When you were making the 45-degree miter did you use a piece of scrap beadboard in the relief cut, to keep the rail flat/square to the fence and not let it tilt a little?
I did not but i will go try it right now and get back.....
steve
I betcha it works a lot better.
I don't do it for a living, but have done it a few times, several with some complex joints (eg, 3-way). A big part of doing it right is visualizing it as the pieces would come together. Kind of analogous to "thinking like a raindrop" when doing flashing.
You were right to notch the first piece -- otherwise you'd have some visible gaps. You never need the scrap piece when making square cuts. It might have helped a little making the notch, but only to make it easier to get the very top bit of the notch square.
The one coping tip I have really loved was just on fine homebuilding. Use a 4" grinder. Amazingly, it works FANTASTIC. Best copes I have ever done and I haven't even gotten much practice with it.
Yeah, but I think it's best to learn with the coping saw first, to get the concept into your brain.