how to mitre baseboard corners?

Answer 1

Mitre cuts are cut at a 45 degree angle, as for around doors and windows and corners, as well as other applications. The secret to a good mitre joint is to consider a door way, for instance. Always cut your 45 degree piece for the top of the door first. Measure across the door jamb at the top, from the middle of the jamb on the left, to the middle of the jamb on the right. That is your "small" measurement. From that measurement, you will cut a 45 degree angle outward and upward away from the mark. For instance, say the measurement from the middle of the jamb to the middle of the jamb is 30.5 inches. Once you cut a 45 out and away from that measurement, the "long" cut will end up at about 35 inches, if you are using a standard 2-2 1/4 inch piece of door trim. See the difference between long and short cuts? Ensure that each cut is in the opposite direction from the other.

Once the top piece is cut and fits properly, nails it into place with one nails in the center, making sure it is relatively tight. Then take a piece of long modling (or trim) and cut a 45 for each side. Remember, each piece of trim will have a left or right angle, based on the left and right side of the door. Once the 45 is cut in each side piece, hold the modling upside down, so the bottom meets your top piece and mark it, then cut a straight cut to length. This cut should give you the proper length. A good tip to remember when working with wood is to not measure, if you can mark. It's better to mark a piece in place, then it is to measure.

Now that you have all three pieces, hold one of them, right side up, to the top of the door and match it to the corresponding 45 degree cut from the top piece. There is a good chance the angles won't meet. This is because no matter how hard we try, nothing is ever perfect. A house may settle over time or it was built with different lumber and practices years ago, so we have to adapt. The way to adapt to this and other mitre cuts is to look at the pieces. If the gap at the bottom is wider than the gap at the top, set your saw at an angle greater than 45, say 46 and make a tiny cut, say half the thickness of the blade (usually blades are 1/8 in, so half the thickness means roughly 1/16 of an inch) and try to fit it again. If the space is larger at the top, adjust your mitre saw to less than 45 degres, say 44 and make a tiny cut. You can use this method for many different mitres and if you take you time and play with it, it should woork wonderfully for you. One more thing to consider is when you use this method, try to have one of the pieces you are working with at 45 degrees. Otherwise you could end up with a very weird looking project.

I hope this helps....good luck!

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Answer 2

WOW what alot of answers. and all of them are correct. Yep 45's, unless you have a different angle. Inside and outside 45's. But inside corners can be made by taking a straight cut and butting it to the wall, next make a 45 degree cut on your base board, then take a coping saw, and follow the raw edge line along the cut and the board will almost make a perfect outline of the baseboard, this will hide a lot of imperfections and really helps if the walls are out of square. You can buy a book at Home Depot or Lowes' that will teach you all of the cuts that you'll need. Any book on trimwork should suffice. Good luck!

Answer 3

For a mitre joint, the ends of two pieces of wood are cut at a 45 degree angle. The mitre, which is only marginally stronger than the butt, is used almost exclusively for appearance sake as the joint conceals the exposed end grain of both pieces of timber. It is the standard type for picture frames and small decorative finishes.

With thin material, the mitres can be cut using a handsaw although using a power circular saw with a guide or jig will produce a more accurate cut.

Answer 4

You can cut all of your miters at 45 degrees if you want, but some of them will not match up correctly. Get a T Bevel, put the thing on the wall and set the angle, transpose that one a piece of paper, if you do not have a protractor, and then find the middle. I have been doing home repair for many years and there are no square corners! 45 degrees works with square corners. Many rooms may not intentionally be made square, but might have some hexagonal, pentagonal, or octaganal joints. Now you will find out why the devil you had to take geometry. If you try to do those with 45 degrees, you will find yourself in a smell of a hess.

Answer 5

but a compound mitre saw, it's worth the investment (and youcan get one for as low as about $100) mitre boxes will leave you sawing for hours. set the angle at 45 degrees. cut some scrap pieces first. it can be hard (for me anyway) to visualize the cut. if you use scraps first you'll get used to the cuts and know what to expect.

Answer 6

miters for corners are all at a 45 degree cut. As long as you have a miter saw, these cuts are very simple.

Answer 7

Outside corners are mitered, inside corners are coped.

Answer 8

of course, in a corner that is not square, you can place a shim behind the offending trim to hold the forty five tight, just don't pace your nails too close to the corner

Answer 9

cope them with a coping saw it needs to be shown to you can't expain it but research coping moulding on line you will find pictures somewhere.