Thread: Scribed Joints in Skirt

I have a house full of skirts that I am going to have to do soon - but I am having some problems visualising how to scribe a joint. Like the Pope said, ssems liek it would be simple enough for a hands on demo, but I'm buggered if I can get my head around how it works reading about it! Anyone got some step by step pics using the coping saw method?

Originally Posted by Ben (TM)

I have a house full of skirts that I am going to have to do soon - but I am having some problems visualising how to scribe a joint. Like the Pope said, ssems liek it would be simple enough for a hands on demo, but I'm buggered if I can get my head around how it works reading about it! Anyone got some step by step pics using the coping saw method?

Just fit one skirt to the wall, right into the corners with square cut ends. Make a 45º cut on the other piece of skirt, as if you are going to do a mitre joint. Now using the coping saw, cut along the edge the saw blade has made on the face of the skirt. Slightly undercut with the coping saw, ie take more off the back.

Cheers
Michael

As mic-d said,and lay the skirt down on your saw stool with the back on to the stool.Then look down on to the 45 you have cut.

Tools

I have just looked at this thread for the first time so thats why I didn't stick my bib in earlier.

Using a router can work really well. Believe me I do this a lot. I do fix outs for a living.

Talking about 65 or 90 mm colonial profile skirt here.
The method Pope described in his first post.

Working left to right
Cutting the mitre with the skirt standing up against the fence upside down
Turning the saw back to just over 90 degrees and cutting down to the beginning of the profile.

Now comes the router bit.
I have a small router with a small straight bit mounted upside down on the drop saw bench so it is only inches away from where the cut just happened
Just flip the skirt on its back. turn the router on and go around the colonial profile.
A bit of practice and it all happens in about ten seconds.

People who say this won't work, well I'm afraid they are wrong.
I often have carpenters from a job next door or nearby who wander in to say G'day and are very interested when they see how I do it.

I must do literaly thousands of these false mitres in a year. And I have been doing fixing for more years than I want to remember

Now I am not saying this will suit every one, but I am saying it can be made to work very well.

Greolt

EDIT: just trying to make it a bit clearer

How big is the router bit Gre, 6mm or smaller still?


Cheers...............Sean, your lowly scribe

I have used smaller but now use 6mm.
It depends on the profile in the skirt and whether you can get into the "corners"
6 mm works with profile of the skirt that we have been using

Do one and try it for fit up.
The other thing to mention with doing this is that the skirt that you fit up to
(the peice already there) must be standing up straight, if you know what I mean.
Or you won't get a nice tight fit.

Greolt

After reading this, I am going to have to look at giving this a go. I have just laid all my skirting in a room at home and I mitred the joints and the used no more gaps to fill in any gaps that shouldn't have been there. I will give this method a go for next time.

Thanks Gre...........cheers............Sean

Originally Posted by Outsider

One of the this Old House Episodes had a device for scribing joints. I was Impressed but not enough to remember properly.

It used a circular saw mounted in a device like a pantograph, which allowed the saw blade to follow the shape of the moulding. The saw cut at about 90 degrees to the cut.