First of all, why cope at all? Why not miter your joints? Mitering is great if all of your corners are square. If not, you either have to play with your miter or live with the big gaps. Sometimes compound mitering is required to get a tight joint. Playing with your miter, in my opinion, is often much more time consuming than coping. It requires you make numerous cuts to find the right angle so your molding sits flush against the wall and tight in the corner. Now you will always need to do some playing on the outside corners because there is no coping for out side corners but you still cut your time in half by coping inside corners. Again this is most true in old houses where the walls are not square anymore. With coping you can put the inside corner together at almost any angle and have a nice tight joint.
The first thing you need to cope is a good coping saw. This saw is shaped like a big “D” with a handle on it. The blade is very thin and can be turned on a very tight corner when needed. Learning how to use a coping saw is not hard. It does take patience. Using pieces of scrap molding you can practice a few times before beginning your installation.
Oct01
Coping a molding such as a chair rail, crown or baseboard takes time, talent and tenacity. Its not something that can be mastered overnight but with a little patience and practice you can be coping like a pro.
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