Crown molding

Crown molding encapsulates a large family of moldings which are designed to gracefully flare out to a finished top edge. Crown molding is generally used for capping walls, pilasters, and cabinets, and is used extensively in the creation of interior and exterior cornice assemblies and door and window hoods.

In recent times, crown moldings have generally made their appearance as mostly decorated plaster or wooden trim where walls meet ceilings.

Installation

Crown molding is typically applied along the seams where ceiling meets wall. Usually it is not placed flush against the wall nor against the ceiling. Instead, when viewed from the molding's end (or as a cross-section), it, the ceiling, and the wall form a "hollow" triangle. This adds a difficulty to the installation process, namely the need for complex cuts to form corners where two walls meet.

There are two common ways to fashion inside corners. One is to use a compound miter saw to cut the ends of the corner pieces along two axes simultaneously. The other, called coping, is a two step process, first to cut a simple miter and then to use a coping saw to undercut the miters.

Many different companies now manufacture crown molding in materials such as plastic and foam. These typically are offered with corner blocks, and are popular with DIY home improvement enthusiasts.

Using a coped joint for interior corners saves you the trouble of having to determine and cut the exact inside degree measurement since most corners are not exactly 90/45 degrees. Outside corners must be mitered, but use care because not all outside corners measure true. Measure and cut accordingly. If the angle is not exactly 45/22.5 degrees use a corner measuring device or piece of scrap crown molding to obtain the right measurement before you make your final cut.

Angle calculations

Fitting crown molding requires a cut at the correct combination of miter angle and bevel angle. The calculation of these angles is affected by two variables: (1) the spring angle (or crown angle, typically sold in 45 degree and 38 degree formats), and (2) the wall angle.

Pre-calculated crown molding tables or software can be used to facilitate the determination of the correct angles. Given the spring angle and the wall angle, the formulas used to calculate the miter angle and the bevel angle are:

Miter angle $=\arctan \left({\frac {\sin {({\text{spring angle}})}}{\tan {({\text{wall angle/2}})}}}\right)$
Bevel angle $=\arcsin \left(\cos {({\text{spring angle}})}*\cos {({\text{wall angle/2}})}\right)$

External links

Woodworking

Overviews

Forms

Woods

Soft	Cedar (Calocedrus, Cedrus) Cypress Douglas fir Fir Juniper Larch Pine Spruce Yew

Hard	Ash Alder Aspen Balsa Beech Birch Cherry Chestnut Cocobolo Ebony Elm Hazel Lignum vitae Linden (lime, basswood) Mahogany Maple Oak Padauk Plum Poplar Teak Totara Walnut Willow

Tools

Abrasives Axe Adze Chisel Clamp Drawknife Drill Float Mallet Milling machine Mitre box Moulding plane Plane Rasp Router Sandpaper Spokeshave Timber-framing Vise Winding sticks Wood scribe Workbench

Saws	Backsaw Bandsaw Bow Bucksaw Chainsaw Circular Compass Coping Crosscut Frame Fretsaw Jigsaw Keyhole Miter Rip Scroll Veneer Whipsaw

Geometry

Joints	Birdsmouth Bridle Butt Butterfly Coping Crown of thorns Dados Dovetail Finger Groove Halved Hammer-headed tenon Knee Lap Mason's mitre Miter Mortise and tenon Rabbet/Rebate Scarf Splice Tongue and groove

Profiles	Bead Bevel Chamfer Molding Ogee Ogive

Treatments

Organizations

Conversion

Techniques

Category
WikiProject
Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 4/21/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.