Rope Moulding
1 - 7 of 7 Posts
Joined
·
21 Posts
I find matching edges is easy, if you cut the scarf ends first (before you finish to exact size) by lining up your saw at the very top of a seam between two of your rope bumps. Line up the saw blade to the right of that point for the left piece and to the left for the right piece, then cut the other ends to exact size and cope with one of those prickly sliding needle thingies.....(a profile guage?).
Finishing it? That's the real pain.. I hope its got a nice smooth finish now because those rope curves are by definition cut against the grain on one half of each side and if you intend to stain it the stain will raise that grain. I tried it once and spend half a summer sanding with my fingertips before I just gave up...
Finishing it? That's the real pain.. I hope its got a nice smooth finish now because those rope curves are by definition cut against the grain on one half of each side and if you intend to stain it the stain will raise that grain. I tried it once and spend half a summer sanding with my fingertips before I just gave up...
Joined
·
24,011 Posts
Yeah, whatever happened? How about an update? Firemedic and I are interested to know.
![]()
![]()
.
.
Somewhere around here is a "fixture" I designed/built that we used to reproduce some 1837 Greek Revival rope mould.It went all the way 'round the exterior cornice,big honkin house(R.E.Lee slept here joint).It was very "interesting" to say the least,haha.It would make the mould as long as you'd keep stuffing it into the end.
The trick was getting the pattern to reproduce itself....Huh?We got a huge shipment of dowels that were the right OD and 6' long.Then I took a std electricians "Bit"...the same size as the mould's OD.The drill got screwed into the end of a pce of dowel.The spiral on the drill sets the spacing and "times" the cutting.
After cutting a foot or so of mould....the fwd projection part of fixture gets unscrewed....elect bit removed...and then the index mechanism registers off the now started rope section.
It worked great...made real good money,cpl hundred an hr(25 years ago).We did have a little chatter on the router motor head we were using.....it would show up when we'd get greedy with feed rate/cutter getting dull.Took a 1 G. paint can of nails and hung it from the router plate using one of those black rubber cheapie straps that you see on every plumber's truck.
This was full perimeter mould.Not split like OP.
The trick was getting the pattern to reproduce itself....Huh?We got a huge shipment of dowels that were the right OD and 6' long.Then I took a std electricians "Bit"...the same size as the mould's OD.The drill got screwed into the end of a pce of dowel.The spiral on the drill sets the spacing and "times" the cutting.
After cutting a foot or so of mould....the fwd projection part of fixture gets unscrewed....elect bit removed...and then the index mechanism registers off the now started rope section.
It worked great...made real good money,cpl hundred an hr(25 years ago).We did have a little chatter on the router motor head we were using.....it would show up when we'd get greedy with feed rate/cutter getting dull.Took a 1 G. paint can of nails and hung it from the router plate using one of those black rubber cheapie straps that you see on every plumber's truck.
This was full perimeter mould.Not split like OP.
1 - 7 of 7 Posts
