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Tips & Techniques

Coping with rounded trim

Issue 62

Our client’s house has some arched windows and doorways, and to remain in keeping with these openings the trim pieces have edges that have been radiused with a 3/8-in. roundover bit. The rounded trim adds a nice touch, but when it came time to attractively join chair rails and baseboards with the door trim, we found ourselves with a problem to solve. My partner, Paul Hannenmann, came up with the solution shown in the drawings.

First he made an adjustable fence out of a piece of 1/4-in. acrylic for his Porter-Cable laminate trimmer. The fence has slots in it that allow it to be moved in relation to the bit. The screws provided on the tool’s base hold the fence in place. Using a 1/2-in. core box bit, Paul plowed a radiused groove in the end of a piece of 1x pine trim (drawing 1). He adjusted the fence to leave a paper-thin edge on the exposed side of the trim. Then he used a table saw to remove the back edge of the groove (drawing 2). The finished reverse curve allows the base or chair-rail member to abut the door casing without a gap (drawing 3).

Anthony Patillo, Conway, MA

Edited and Illustrated by Charles Miller

From Fine Homebuilding #62

 

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  1. user-3976312 | Sep 06, 2016 08:37pm | #1

    And drawings 2 and 3 ...

  2. friedamaus | Sep 06, 2016 10:02pm | #2

    sounds like something I need to know but the second and third drawings don't seem to be here

  3. chipnikki | Sep 07, 2016 01:20pm | #3

    would be nice to see the 2nd and 3rd drawings

  4. KnotRough | Nov 21, 2018 07:35pm | #4

    For once all drawing ARE there....1....2...3 !

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