How to make this molding?

[Dave McGeehan]

I must make a 9" section of molding to match the attached pics. I will hand carve the beaded section and glue it on after I make the coved area. I don't have a router bit to match the cove. The piece is about 150 years old and was probably hand planed. I was going to cut it by angling it across my table saw blade but I don't think it'll symmetrically match the shape. The radius is 9/16". Any ideas on another method to match the cove?

[Bill Orbine]

For 9 inches, I suppose for most of us it ain't worth getting a knife made or scrounging thru catalogs and websites for a cutter for either the shaper or router. right off the bat, I'd draw the profile at the end of the new stock and make multiple passes over the table saw to cut out most of the waste. That is placing the stock face down on the table saw, moving the fence and raise/lower the blade accordingly. And when it comes to the bead area, set the blade at an angle. Then sand/scrape/carve out the saw lines. And carve out the carvings. It's 'bout an hour job for me. For 9 inches what she wants.:D

[george wilson]

Practice with scrap on the table saw till you get it right. Gluing on the extra piece is a good idea.

[Peter Quinn]

The profile is known as a Cavetto (small half round bead into larger cove) but I have not seen a stock shaper cutter with that particular geometry so your inclination that it was hand made, or at least made with custom knives, is probably correct. I'm not sure you can get a full radius that small for a symmetrical cove on a TS with a 10" blade. You could get a bit that big for the router but even that might be more money than you want to spend for a 9" run? Perhaps you could grind a scratch stock from an old card scraper or similar piece of metal to make the cove and bead in one operation? You could take off most of the waste with a few TS cuts and finish it up by hand. Might not be too bad to make for only 9".

[Jamie Buxton]

You might could do it entirely with power tools if you're willing to make it in two pieces. Cut a cove -- probably with a router -- and glue on the little bead detail.

[Jeff Bratt]

With a combination of feed angle and blade tilt, you can cut most any ellipsoidal curve into your stock using the table saw. The general idea for something like is cut the curve into the edge of a wider piece, then cut off the molding piece to its finished size. Frank Klausz's pamphlet "Cove Cutting" includes curves that detail many combinations of the above angles that you can then use to match your existing molding.

Another idea is to make a scraper to match that profile, use a saw or standard router bits to hog out most of the wood, and then scrape to the finished shape.

[Dave McGeehan]

Thanks everyone for the ideas. I think multiple passes on the table saw and hand carving is the way to go. I have a good selection of carving tools and scrapers that should help get me there.

[Keith Christopher]

Cove one piece, the put a bead on another, then rip the bead off and glue to the cove. That's a toughie for sure.

[Mike Henderson]

Cove one piece, the put a bead on another, then rip the bead off and glue to the cove. That's a toughie for sure.
Rather than trying to rip the bead off, make the bead as Keith suggests, but leave the bead on the wood and glue it to the other piece after you cut the cove on it. Just make the junction of the two pieces a vertical line drawn directly downward from the left side of the bead (in your second picture).

That way, the bead has support and you have more gluing surface between the two pieces. Then carve the design into the bead.

Mike

[Dave McGeehan]

Thanks, Mike, for another solution I hadn't thought of. All these Sawmill Creek suggestions for my question show what I love about woodworking: there's always multiple creative methods to complete the same project.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Make a couple of Maple hand planes to cut that profile. Prolly need two planed to get it.

Cut the blade from any hardenable flat stock.
use a small jewelers piercing saw to get the profile on the blade and file it true.

That's how we used to make the punch and die sets to make watch gears in the bad old days before CNC machines.
The Toolmaker would use a jewelers piercing saw to cut the die then file it to the line under a magnifying scope. The punch was made by first turning the punch slightly larger than the Die cut out then melting lead to the end of the punch. The die and punch were then mounted into the die set. The leaded end would be pressed into the Die and the tool maker would take the punch out and machine it to the lead.

The process usually took a couple of shots to get the fit just right.

[Lee Schierer]

Make your own scratch tool with a card scraper, similar to this Beading tool (http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?sku=66)

Remove most of the wood with your saw or hand plane then use the scratch tool to make the curved profile and bead. It is amazing how fast it will go. I helped a friend replace some door frames on an antique cabinet using this method. I made two piece of beaded door trim (beaded on both sides) about 72" long in less than an hour once I got the holder for the scraper made.http://sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=79572&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1200702911

Start with a piece of stock a bit longer than the finished piece and make two so you can use the second piece if you don't get the first one cut quite right.

[Dave McGeehan]

Followup: I drew the profile on the end, used the tablesaw to remove most of the waste (straight cuts, non-cove), defined the shape using a block plane, shoulder plane, v-tool, and gouges. If I had to do a longer run I'd probably use one of the other methods but this worked well for a small piece. Thanks to all.