While wood trim can be as simple as nailing a piece of lumber in place and giving it a coat of paint, most wood trim and molding is processed using either routers or molding machines.. It actually is an angle cut, usually on the end of a piece of wood, and most of the miters that we're going to be cutting today will form an angle of 90 degrees. this is the kind of miter that we're going to be working with today. so let's start by taking one piece, one long piece of molding right here, and cutting a 45 degree miter on one end.. Molding the cove. form the cove by making a series of passes over the blade. to start, set the blade height 1 ⁄ 13" above the table. turn the saw on and use push blocks to slowly feed the molding blank over the blade, top photo. raise the blade 1 ⁄ 16" and make another pass. repeat this procedure until you reach the final cove depth..
Making curved molding having made cardboard templates. for the shapes i needed, i laid these out on an unplaned piece of pine shelving and cut them out on my bandsaw.. next i laid the pieces out on my 1:1 paper template to make sure the joint lined up when the pieces were properly aligned.. Measure to the center of the molding on the back, and make a mark. raise the blade on the miter saw 1/8 inch above the miter saw table. place the molding on the table face down, centered on the mark. turn on the saw. cut across the molding on the mark. slide the molding 1/4-inch to the left or right, and make another cut.. Pry or cut off a piece of the molding you want to copy. if it's caked with paint, strip it down to bare wood. take a piece of wood slightly longer than you need and cut it down on the table saw to match the height and thickness of the molding you're copying..
