"Coping" with crown molding

As I was servicing my miter saw last night, I decided some practice was in order before I installed the crown molding in the dining room & living room. I learned a couple things & thought I'd pass the info along (trying to give back a little to the CBN brain trust)

When we did crown molding in the bedroom, I couldn't cope with coping the molding. Mitering the corners was easy to cut, but hard to install As we had to do both pieces at once. I have since found better instructions on coping This Old House: Crown molding

As I was practicing on some scrap pieces, I was having trouble keeping the coping saw at the proper angle. I thought, hmm, there has to be a better way. This is what I came up with. I wish I had a better dig camera to share some pictures.

Step 1: Miter angle in molding for inside corner
Step 2: Darken line with pencil
Step 3: Use miter saw to cope.
3A: Place molding in saw such that it is oriented like it was to go on wall. IE Fence is the wall & ceiling is UP.
It helps to cut a piece of 2X8 at 38 degrees to use as a back stop.
3B: angle saw 15 degrees such that it is undercutting from pencil line. If the molding is on the left of the blade, you will swing the blade to the right & vice versa.
3C: Take lots of slices down to line. Stop before you get to the end. You want the last little bit to be cut at 0 degrees (the part that is parallell to the floor you would see if you looked up into the corner)
Step 4: Use wood rasp & file to smooth out ridges.
Step 5: Test fit & repeat step 4 as needed.

I don't know If I'm the first to invent this method, but I got better results & more quickly than doing it by hand. Hope I didn't offend any purists [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]