Shaker Baseboard/casing

[Jesse Busenitz]

I'm going to be trimming a house here soon, and it's getting oak shaker style trim, with the baseboard getting a 45* bevel on top and the casing corners hit with a sander. Is it worth it to make my own, or is that a huge hassle? I just bought a power feeder but haven't set it up yet so I'd have that to use. The house is only 1400 SF. I'm a one man shop but the home owner has some woodworking experience, and would be helping out. Am I crazy????

[Judson Green]

Might give you a good opportunity to get acquainted with your stock feeder. Are you planning on making the bevel on a shaper of the table saw? Either way the stock feeder will work out great. Mount it on a board and clamp it to the machine if you're not ready to drill holes in the machine top. Are you backing out the casing/base boards? How you doing that?

I'd not let the home owner on the business side of the machine, but having someone over there catching is a huge help.

[Jesse Busenitz]

Yeah, I have limited experience with a feeder, but it shouldn't be rocket science... I was considering shaper vs TS... Using TS I'd have to sand the bevel, but the shaper would have to hog out more... though it isn' that much for a 3 hp shaper. Is backing out necessary? I'd rather not do that unless it's absolutely necessary. +1 on the shop help....

[Judson Green]

Backing out isn't necessary, but might make the install easier. I guess how flat are the walls would be my indicator as to whether or not this needed to be done.

Whether done on the table saw or shaper I'd still be doing some clean up. I'm not a fan of seeing the cutter ripples in molding. Personal I'd probably do it on my table saw and then hand plane or scrape the kerf marks away. Even a sharp paint scraper will make quick work of that job.

[scott vroom]

You mentioned a homeowner but you didn't say if this a customer or a friend? If a customer then I'd buy the oak moulding and add on the cost of your labor. If it's for a friend and you aren't worried about your time then you could do it on a shaper.

TS is going to require a lot of sanding which will cause the sharp edges of that narrow cut to round over slightly. Just chamfer it on the shaper.

I wouldn't mess with "hitting the edge of the casing with a sander". I use a 1/16 round over to ease edges of long pieces. You'll get a superior and consistent profile.

[Jesse Busenitz]

It's for an uncle and aunt of mine, and the only reason i'm considering it would be to save money plus I can get a custom profile. I would be counting my time, but figured it'd be simple enough.

[Jim Andrew]

Using a power feeder with a shaper results in very smooth cuts. I ran some molding for my SIL on mine, and it turned out great, using a MLCS router bit and the Grizzly router bit adapter.

[Peter Quinn]

I'd probably hog the waste on a TS then run the last 1/8" off on the shaper. That's a lot of oak for a 3hp shaper, but you could certainly test it to see, if it can be done in one shot or even two passes on the shaper than easier than two set ups. Making all the blanks is the hard part, you have a source for s4s? If so its not crazy at all to run it your self.

[Jesse Busenitz]

So I jumped in the deep end and went for it.... Spent the last two days running about 1500 linear feet of oak trim. I ordered 575 BF of oak, had them surface it to 13/16. I then ran it all through my 20" spiral grizzly @ 3/4 , as there surface is hit and miss for quality, and my planer leaves it silky smooth. I then proceeded to run it through my table saw at 6" baseboard 5" headers and 4" casing. I bought a 1hp power feed and that thing totally saved me.... I then ran the boards on end through the planer to dress the edges(wasn't perfectly square I'm sure, but the edge profile was just a round over ) one edge on the base, 2 on the casing. Then on to my router table (with power feed again) for a 1/8 round over that we switched to instead of the bevel, once on the baseboard and twice on the casing..... anyways I'm glad its Friday.
It was a lot of fun and ended up spilling out into the rest of my dad's machine shop as it was empty at the time and I'm glad I did as it made everything flow a lot better, which I found is key when you're running that much wood. Did I mention the power feeder rocked???? I will post pics later if I can get them on the computer. They sent me a 14" x 16' board.... could hardly bear to cut it up....