I hope someone can tell me the trick to avoid such a gap as I got on one corner of crown in a soffetted ceiling.
Plaster was not perfect(surprise, surprise) and I could not keep the top edge of the overlapped piece from pulling inward (Note several nails I used to try to hold that top edge out from the wall). This piece was the first one I put up and the other end mated very well with the second leg that was coped over it.
You can’t see it in the picture, but there is a shim at the top to try to compensate for the rise in the ceiling that starts about a foot out from the corner in both directions.
Thanks for your help guys. I’d like to do better next time if for no other reason than to save money on all the caulk it took to fill the gaps. 🙂
BruceT
Edited 7/12/2006 10:54 pm ET by BruceT999
Replies
I couldn't figure out how to put in a picture in "edit mode".
Here is what I'm talking about.
BruceT
Bruce
I'm going to give this a stab!
I see the piece on the right with the gaps both at the top and bottom, can I assume that is where the wall/ceiling does its change of direction? You may have to do a little plaster floating to take care of that.
If so and your piece comming in on the left is the coped piece then what you need to do is recut your miter to compensate for the difference in the gap, for instance, if that gap at the top is 1/4" then recut your 45 adjusting the miter saw to take that 1/4" to nothing off.
Then recope and refit.
Doug
without getting my hands on it its hard to say exactly whats wrong but here is a few soloutions
1 - is the crown on the right as tight to the wall as it can be at the bottom? doesn't quite look like it.
2 - cut a left and right out side corner at perfect compound angles, turn them upside down on a flat surface, mate them perfect, measure the distance from the flat surface to the top of the moulding. thats how far you should have indicator marks down from the ceiling at the corners. if its not exact then your crown is out of square ( so to speak)in its position. that will cause your cope to not fit correct just as it is in your photo.
3 - if both the above are bang on then your mitre is off on the coped cut or needs finessing. adjust only the mitre to compensate not the bevel. as the previous poster stated.
2 pointers i teach my employees
before you recut, stop, study it and figure out why, then make indicator marks. dont just cut it shorter.
when coping, make your piece fit tight. if you back cut it alot, you can shave it down with a file, utility knife or just squish it in.
best of luck. let us know how you did.
Tmaxxx
Urban Workshop Ltd
Vancouver B.C.
cheers. Ill buy.
All the advice here is good. The trouble is there are so many variables in this type of situation and without being there it's hard to give you the right advice.
If there are gaps from the walll to crown or cieling to crown, that's not too much of a problem, you just float the wall to meet it as the previous poster said.
Keep in mind that when you change the cut one way or another on a compound angle, you change the size of the profile of the cope. You may want to do a regular cut and then hold up the piece of crown and keep scribing and whittling away till it fits.
A method I came up with for getting better corners, both inside and out, is to attach the first piece of crown only in the middle so there is play on the ends. Cut your next piece and set it on some sort of support somewhere in the middle of the piece, I use a nail driven into the wall and cieling right on the lines of where the crown is to go. Now you can play with both corners and adjust them to fit with the one piece able to slide in and out a bit accordingly. Have your gun ready in one hand as you hold the correct fitted corners in the other. I realize this is a bit unorthadox but throughout the years it has worked very well for me. I usually use an inside "test" piece that is about 24" and coped on both ends and then fit the loose hanging ends of the crown.
When I do prefinished on cabinetry I always miter the inside corners.
Bruce, if you're cutting it laying flat on the miter saw, you've probably got the wrong angles...If you're cutting it upside down and backwards, you're not bedding the crown high enough up the wall...or you're not bedding it right in the saw...nice, clean cope, though<G> I need a dump truck, baby, to unload my head
Thanks Guys, I did not notice at the time, but I think you are right about my not having cut that miter correctly (I cut upside-down & backwards) before I coped it. The other three corners were correct, but this last one did not fit and I assumed that my cope was correct and that the top edge of the under-piece must have been twisted. Looking again at the picture, I see that if I had been able to rotate the first piece counter-clockwise to meet the coped one at the top, it would not have matched the profile.I appreciated the suggestions to use a mitered corner of scrap pieces to make indicator marks down from the ceiling at each corner, but what do you do with a case like this where the ceiling rises for the last 10" or so into that corner? I did not notice that until I put the first piece upBy the way, I used a 23ga pinner (Cadex)to tack the pieces in place for fitting. Worked great and where adjustments were necessary it was easy to pull the piece back down without damaging anything.BruceT
Edited 7/14/2006 2:22 am ET by BruceT999
To my eye ,it appears that the piece on the right is not installed at the correct spring angle. Take a short piece of crown,about a foot long,then hold it against one corner making sure the top and bottom edge hit the wall and ceiling. Mark the bottom edge, then do the opposite corner.Both bottom marks should line up.
I cope, which it appears you also did.I take the same short piece of crown and mark the wall in several places. I do not nail the last two or three feet of crown.This gives you a bit of play to get a good fit.The coped piece gets nailed closer to the end,this pushes into the first one for a tight fit.
mike