It really makes no sense to me. I spent two hours on one corner and it still doesn't fit together properly. I am a real moron when it comes to this type of woodworking. I watched Norm Abrams knock out some very complicated ceiling molding in a matter of minutes. I am definately no Norm Abrams but I understand the principal and the goal but I just don't have the skill, or patience to get it right.
I will spend the rest of the day coping the remaining four corners of the room. In the meantime, I'd love to hear a good explaination on why I should be doing this.
3 comments:
You know, I've wondered that myself. I don't understand why you can't just miter the corners. You know, 45 degrees here butts up to the other 45 degrees there. It just doesn't seem like it would need to be that difficult!
Good work on coping!! It does take a while to get the hang of it, but after that it goes pretty fast. I think the joint's origins result from the pre-miter box era when cutting miters was not as accurate as it can be now with power miter saws. There are two main reasons to still use the joint. 1. If you cut a miter to meet in a corner, if there is ANY give in the substrate as you nail it, the joint will open, giving unprofesional results, and usually there is some give. 2. It is way easier to compensate for corners that are not 100% square.
Miter corners pay off if the wood shifts over the years. If you have a plain old mitered corner, you see a crack back to the wall. If you cope, the shift never exposes the wall. I chuckled at this post, because I have to cope the corwn moulding in my kitchen and I'm sure there will be plenty of whining from me on that :-) Your picture rail looks great!
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