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Cutting Coped Ends
On Baseboard Or
Other Trim
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In
This Article:
The trim is cut to a 45-degree bevel. A
coping saw is used to cut along the resulting profile
line. The cut is adjusted with files and sanding tools. |
Related Articles:
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| Skill Level:
2-3 (Basic to Intermediate) |
Time Taken:
10-20 Minutes |
By
Bruce W. Maki,
Editor
Start:
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When installing wood
trim, the best inside corner joints are made
with cope-cuts, where the end of one
piece of millwork is cut to match the contours
of the adjacent board. |
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| First, I made
a 45-degree bevel cut on the end of the
baseboard that needed to be coped. I cut the
boards face down so the saw teeth were
digging into the wood, not away
from the board. This reduces or eliminates
tear-out of the wood fibers, resulting in a good
clean cut. |
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When a piece of trim is cut on a 45-degree bevel
like this, the line where the cut meets the
finished surface has almost exactly the same
profile as the trim. When everything works
right, this profile will perfectly match the adjacent piece of trim on an inside
corner, and the joint will be tight. |
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All I need to do is remove the
excess material between the "profile line" and the end
of the board.
| To make the
profile line easier to see, I rubbed the side
of a pencil tip along the corner. There's one
spot where the profile line is not the
line to cut along... that short line inside the
red circle.
The cut line needs to be made
perpendicular to the back surface where the
profile line meets the top flat surface
of the trim. |
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| This is a
coping saw, which is designed to cut tight
curves. |
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I started cutting off the excess material along
the straight part of the board. |
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Sometimes I
cheat and use a miter saw to cut along the
straight section of the trim.
Note how I've tilted the saw blade... I set it
at 15 degrees from vertical. |
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When I got to
the end of the straight stretch, I made a quick cut
from the end to release the off-cut. |
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After Cutting With The
Coping Saw:
There are 2 important
concepts I want to illustrate.
First, When
cutting with the coping saw
I try to leave a small amount of excess
material (A), which will be sanded or filed off.
Second, I cut on
an angle to create a 15-degree "back-bevel" or
"relief angle" (B). Why? There are 2
reasons: When the excess is filed down, I can
create a tight-fitting "knife edge" of material
at the face of the board. Also, beveled end
means I can file down only a small amount of
wood near the face and get a large adjustment in
the coped end. Without the beveled end, there is
a lot more filing to do when trying to adjust
the coped end to fit against the adjacent piece
of trim. |
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All of this complexity may sound
like a lot of hassle, and cause some do-it-yourselfers to
revert to the stone age and simply use mitered inside
corners. I understand. In my earliest projects I used
beveled inside corners... I had read about this concept of
cope-cut ends and I thought "what a waste of time". But when
circumstances caused me to become a self-employed
handyman/carpenter, I tried this technique and discovered
that it gave superior results while taking just slightly
longer. The key to success is patience and perseverance.
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Power Assistance:
Sometimes I use this 1"
x 30" belt sander to remove the excess material
left after cutting with the coping saw.
Using this tool is easy
on the straight section, but on the curves it
requires a lot of careful attention to avoid
sanding too far or sanding the wrong spot.
Note that I've tilted
the table about 15 degrees, so I can
maintain the back-bevel that I mentioned
earlier. |
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| Mostly, I use a
regular flat file, a round file, and a triangle file
to remove the excess material. I just lay the
baseboard face up on a table and use whichever
file seems best for the section being filed:
- Flat or convex areas - Flat file
- Sharp inside corners - Triangle file
- Concave areas - Round file
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Tip:
The sander shown above is a
prime example of why I always cut the coped end
of a piece of trim before I cut the board
to its final length. It's easy to make a small mistake
and ruin the contour on the coped end. But that can be
fixed by re-cutting the original 45-degree bevel, and
the bevel cut can be made just a fraction of an inch
from the coped end (whatever it takes to cut out the bad
part). If you're lucky, you won't need to re-cut the
profile line with the coping saw, just grind down the
excess material. |
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I test-fitted the cut by placing the coped end
(right-hand board)
against a piece of trim. If the coped end
isn't perfect, the imperfections can be seen
when viewed from this angle. |
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| But when
viewed from this angle, the imperfections
practically disappear. Once the corner gap is
caulked and repainted, even substantial flaws
can be almost invisible. |
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Back View Of A Coped
Joint:
When the coped end is
complete and fitted against the neighboring
piece of trim, there should be a void in the rear |
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| Another view
of the same void. You can just barely see light
through that gap. |
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More Info:
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- Basic
Carpentry Tools
- Miter Saw
- Coping Saw
- Files: Flat, Round, Triangle
- 1x30 Belt Sander (Optional)
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Materials Used:
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