Mouldings and Mitre Cuts

[Flick (Guest)]

Am very new to woodworking. Am trying to add some mouldings on kitchen cabinets to add some dimension. Thought 45 degree cuts were easy with a mitre box I borrowed. That was not fun! So I got out the trusty Dremel and made the cuts easy enough, but not one of them is the same. It's 3/4 inch pine moulding. All I want to do is make little picture frames to glue on the front of the cabinets before I repaint. Any thoughts on how to improve this process? How do you get true 45 degree angles to make square corners? I'm in a condo and doing this work on my balcony so there's no possibility of REAL tools. Altho I like to think I can do almost anything with the Dremel. Thank you for any help. I'm bookmarking this site for future use.

Li

[John Lucas]

Li,
From a condo balcony perspective, the best way is probably the least expensive also. At Home Depot or equivalent look for a miter box and a back saw. The box will have precut slits that will guide your saw. With that the only trick is to hold the molding still while you make the cut...a small clamp can be helpful here. Short, light cuts to start will reduce tearout of the molding.
John Lucas
www.woodshopdemos.com (http://www.woodshopdemos.com)

[handi]

Li,

Back 100 years ago, long before power tools, craftspeople were able to make very tight miters. There are two basic ways:

A handplane and a shooting board. A good book on handplanes (Garrett Hack's "The Handplane Book" is my choice)The shooting board holds the part tight aligned to a 45 degree face that the plane "shoots" along, truing up the face. Ans a handplane will allow you to square and edge your stock too, so it is a great investment for the limited toolbox.

The second secret is to cut your parts, dry clamp (no glue) them in position so they are exactly 90 degrees, then saw right down through the joint. The saw kerf will even up the two faces creating a great fitting joint. This is an old carpenter's trick and works every time.

Hope this helps,

Ralph