Installing profiled case facing molding
Bill Tindall, E.Tn.
I am making furniture for a granddaughter’s bedroom. My case pieces are usually faced to hide the dovetails that hold the case together. She chose a bull nose profile for the edge facing of her case pieces. If the facing is profiled the intersecting facing must be mitered as shown in Picture 1.
The divider locations in the vertical molding are going to be marked, this piece removed, the vee’s cut out and then returned to the vertical face to be glued to the case. For the vees to line up the molding must be returned to exactly the location where it was marked. This task is accomplished through the use of locating pins, snipped off brads.
Four brads are driven into the edge of the case and then the heads snipped off, leaving about 1/8” sticking up with a sharp point. Picture 2.
Whatever size brad is 0.040” shank works best for embedding into the facing to make a locating hole.
With this facing piece temporarily in place the location of the intersection dividers is defined by scoring the vertical molding with a chisel or marking knife, Picture 3.
The vertical molding is removed and with the aid of a vee block, the mitered notches are cut out roughly with a saw and pared to final size with a chisel. Pictures 4 and 5.
The molding is returned to the case and glued in place, Picture 5.
Finally the divider facing is cut to size and installed. One end is mitered and put in place on the case, overhanging the other end of the divider. The required length is marked with a marking knife, in this case one made by David Weaver, Picture 6. The arrow indicates the location of the mark defining the base of the vee.
This piece is cut to length with a miter sled using these knifed marks as a guide, Picture 7.
Fine adjustment to length is done on a mitered shooting board, Picture 8.
The miter angle is adjusted as needed by a “room key” shim. Finally, the divider facing is glued in place. Picture 9.
