Made some baseboard, what do you think? (w/pic's)

[David Eisan]

Hello everyone,

You might recall me asking about historic trim a while back. I found a great book at Lee Valley that is a reprint of a 1920's mail order house catalogue. It has many trim samples in full scale, and I found just what I was looking for.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/cbase1.jpg

I faxed a page from the book to Woodmaster Tools of Canada. They faxed me back a CAD drawing to sign off on. I had my knives in less than a week. They were great guys to deal with.

I made a sled for the moulder so that the stock tracked correctly.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/cbase2.jpg

I was worried about getting all the knives set correctly, but it wasn't that hard. All the knives are the same height, so you bottom them out in the cutterhead for registration.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/cbase3.jpg

Here is a shot of the test piece of moulding I made.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/cbase4.jpg

I wanted the colour of the cherry moulding to match my Jatoba staircase and flooring. I applied a very diluted wash of Lye on the sample. The colour change is VERY quick. I neutralized the lye with a diluted wash of vinegar and then plain water.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/cbase5.jpg

I took a three foot section of the baseboard and sprayed lacquer on most of the left hand side.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/cbase6.jpg

I really like the look. I didn't even try to price out 7-1/2" custom cherry baseboard, but I expect it would be a bit more than the $3.00 a linear foot I have into this.

Thanks for looking,

David.

Every Neighbourhood has one, in Mine I'm Him

[Larry Fox]

Wow - very impressive David. Great result and you will save yourself a ton of $$. Question for you, that is an interesting book - does it also have things like how to construct stacked moldings and shor crown moldings?

[Eric Larsen]

I see you put your floor in on the bias.

Loads of fun, eh?

I wish I could go back in time (set the Wayback machine for Christmas Eve) and smack myself for suggesting it.

Sure, it came out nice, but damn that's a lot of tapping, hitting, thumping and pounding to get everything to line up.

Nice looking stairs, too.

[fRED mCnEILL]

From the pictures it appears as though you have a General Int. planer. Or is it a molder.

Is it possible to use special ground molding knives in a planer? And if so what do they charge to custom grind knives?

Thanks

Fred Mc.

[Scott Vigder]

Beautiful Work!

[David Eisan]

Larry Fox - The Book is not how to, it is a catalogue you order your house from.

fRED mCnEILL - I have a General 130 planer w/Byrd head for regular thicknessing. The machine in the photo is a General International 30-100 planer/moulder. You cannot just put moulding knives in a regular planer, it will not work. The moulder has to be able to have a large amount of adjustment of the infeed and outfeed rollers to account for the knives sticking 3/4" out of the cutterhead as well as them having to have an abnormal amount of travel. I paid a couple of hundred dollars for the custom ground knives.

David.

[Peter Quinn]

Nice work sir. Looks like a beautiful casing and a beautiful home. You mean they didn't have a 6" complex base mold at the Borg? Mine carries them in cherry, QSWO, black walnut and tiger maple!:D:D:D NOT.

I have several reprinted antique millwork catalogues I got from amazon dating from the 1880's through the 1920's, lots of great full sized drawings of moldings. Several of the catalogues do show full room "Idea" pictures with complex built up crowns and other casings. Most have a little side box line drawing referencing which moldings are necessary and how they are stacked.

Here are two books on the subject I find particularly interesting.

Historic Millwork: A Guide to Restoring and Re-creating Doors, Windows, and Moldings of the Late Nineteenth through Mid-Twentieth Centuries by Brent Hull

Universal Millwork Catalog, 1927: Over 500 Designs for Doors, Windows, Stairways, Cabinets and Other Woodwork (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)

[Sam Yerardi]

Very nice work, David!

[Walt Caza]

Looks great David!
It looks like you are well on your way.
Your Jatoba floors are amazing, keep up the good work...
take care,
Walt

ps Is that planer/moulder a loaner? or a new aquisition?
:)

[Joseph Cardinal]

Hi David,

Those are great looking baseboards.

I have a question concerning the lye process you used.

Did the rag pick-up any of the red color?

I have a lamination of cherry-maple-walnut and am wondering if using this process would transfer some red to the maple...which I don't want.

I was about to ammonia-fume the piece, but your process would be easier.

Cheers,
Joseph

[Anthony Anderson]

That is very impressive David. I really like the tone of the color, absolutely beautiful. Thanks for explaining how you achieved the color, I am sure I will use your mix. But one thing, you don't look anything like your avatar. Who is the avatar picture of?

[Scott Kilroy]

I've been on the fence about making my own crown molding and seeing your work has made me think I'm not totally crazy. Really nice work.

[Art Mulder]

But one thing, you don't look anything like your avatar. Who is the avatar picture of?

That's his evil twin brother "Skippy".


(seriously, Dave does look like that. Well, not the hair, but no one can explain that hair... :p )

[Jim Becker]

Great job, David!!!!

[Toney Robertson]

David,

I too would also be interested in more of an explanation on the lye process for darkening the cherry.

I have looked before for a recipe but could never find one.

Toney

[Rob Will]

David,

I too would also be interested in more of an explanation on the lye process for darkening the cherry.

I have looked before for a recipe but could never find one.

Toney

Me too!
Great job David!
Rob

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Very well done David!

[Bill Wyko]

The Moulding looks great! What I want to see is more of that stair case. It looks fantastic.:)

[Mike Monroe]

Hey, H8828, the profile all the way to the right, looks exactly like the trim I'm pulling out of this old farmhouse. The baseboard even has the quarter-round too. Coincidence?

[Josiah Bartlett]

Nicely done. Are you going to quarter-round the bottom? I find that does a nice job of keeping the baseboard from being scuffed up by furniture and vacuum cleaners.

My 1900 house has 8" wide douglas fir ship-lap siding (gotta love a timber town house), and they used the same boards as baseboard except with another piece over the top of the lap for decoration. Unfortunately most of it was ruined when the house was remodeled sometime in the past. I've been thinking of copying it and replacing what is missing, you have inspired me.

[Art Mulder]

The Moulding looks great! What I want to see is more of that stair case. It looks fantastic.:)

Bill, just search out David's earlier posts and you'll see more of what he's been doing with his house.

Here is the staircase thread. (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=71805)

best,
...art

[George Sanders]

Very nice work.

[Matt Meiser]

That looks great. I think you are correct in your assumption that it would run you much more than $3/ft. The place near me that does custom molding recently started stocking some profiles on the shelf--the closest thing I see in cherry on their web site is 1/2 the height of yours at $2.85/ft. A 7" profile in red oak is $3.50 (they didn't list red oak.) Plus as soon as it is a special order the price jumps.

[Neal Clayton]

sorry to bump this but i'm doing the same thing and noticed someone else mentioned an old millwork catalog as a source of info...

here's a couple of others if folks get into the same thing...

http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Millwork-Catalog-1927-Stairways/dp/0486426157/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211168704&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/Turn-Century-Windows-Decorative-Millwork/dp/0486285146/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211168704&sr=8-1

the first is from 1927, the other is from 1893, both will cover the vast majority of standard trim, doors, windows, cabinets, etc. that were available during that period, if you ever find yourself working on a 100ish year old house like some of us gullible people get ourselves into ;).

[Karl Brogger]

Just as a reference I was looking at some 8 1/2" cherry crown at place I get my mouldings from. They charge a dollar an inch. Yikes.....

[Chris Padilla]

Maybe it is just me but I don't see a single picture in this thread! :(

[David DeCristoforo]

"Maybe it is just me but I don't see a single picture in this thread!..."

Snot just u. I doan see no steenking pichers either! Hummm...

[Chris Padilla]

Ah, I see them now. :) Weird....

Nice work, David! Love the jatoba...the molding will only compliment it.

[David DeCristoforo]

"Ah, I see them now. Weird...."

Humm.. me too. Very weird!

[Chris Padilla]

Must be a Cali thing, David! ;)

[David DeCristoforo]

"Must be a Cali thing, David!..."

Or a "Mac" thing? Are you using a Mac?

[Chris Padilla]

Nope, PC here.... :)

[Steve Clardy]

Very nice David