I’m milling some (simple) molding for baseboards, door and window trim for finishing my basement. I had some red oak milled and kiln dried that I plan to use for the molding. I have a hobby woodworking shop in the unfinished half of my basement and, in addition to other machinery, own a long bed, 8″ jointer, 15″ planer and 3 hp router in a table.
First of all, I’m curious as to whether you think I’m crazy to contemplate milling my own molding. Secondly, is it absolutely necessary to face joint my stock to perfectly flat as I do for furniture making? I’m trying to keep it as long as possible/necessary, but I have some cupping, bowing and twisting to deal with (after acclimating the wood in the heated area of the basement that I am finishing).
Thanks!
Replies
If you are usin a hand held router, it will ride the waves when profiling an edge. A router table wants things more flat, and often featherboards or hold downs are helpful, but if the bow is severe, feeding gets to be a hassle and inaccuracies and burns often happen.
I like profiles that I have matching hand planes for, I then just take a swipe with a molding plane, and chase away the chatter or burn marks. I really try to avoid as much sanding as I can, tedious and rounded details look bad.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
They kill Prophets, for Profits.
The process might save you some money, but only if you don't count your time. And it might result in some profiles that are not popular enough to be readily available.
A couple of other notes.....
Router bits wear out more quickly than you expect on projects like this.
The amount of dust/chips will be huge. If you already have a dust collector, you'll be in good shape. If not, be sure to have a big flat shovel. Really big.
I've done this when I wanted some pressure treated wood in a few profiles for a high-end deck project. The walls/railings were done with beaded tongue and groove, and they had crown molding below the "cap". For the most part, I was able to run it all through the router table in a couple of days.
But as Sphere noted, chatter and burns can be a problem. With my project, chatter was not much of an issue when it happened -- I just milled more stock. (The pressure treated 'blanks' were cheap). And burns didn't matter at all, since the walls were to be stained/painted.