Cutting cove moulding on a tablesaw

[JSpill]

I need to cut some cove moulding for the top of a grandfather clock. I'm going to be using the Rockler Cove Cutting Jig. I've never cut cove moulding on a table saw before, so I don't know what to expect. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

[KC]

JSpill said:

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I need to cut some cove moulding for the top of a grandfather clock. I'm going to be using the Rockler Cove Cutting Jig. I've never cut cove moulding on a table saw before, so I don't know what to expect. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

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Expect to be scared. In my experience, anyway. I've done it a couple times, don't like it. Take small bites. Take your time. Visualize what you're going to do and then pay attention.

[handi]

Rockler's jig has guides both front and back, so there is very little chance of kicking back.

As stated above, many light passes are much better than fewer aggressive ones.

This is an operation that I REALLY like MicroJig's GRR-RIP BLOCKs for. They have really good grip and keep your hands above the blade should something go horribly wrong.

But honestly, nothing should go wrong. It is a pretty straight forward operation. Be sure everything is secure and take your time. After the first couple of passes, you should become more comfortable doing it.

I do recommend cutting a piece of poplar or other scrap to test your set up. Getting the angle of the jig right is tricky. As you angle the jig across the blade, the curve being cut will widen and the radius increase.

I like to draw the curve on the end of the set up board, raise the blade to the final height, then angle the board until the blade matches the drawn curve as I sight down the board from the outfeed side. Hope I explained that well enough.

Again, light cuts. The carbide tooth height is the maximum cut you should take, but about half that will be better.

Ralph

[jteneyck]

It's no big deal, just seems scary until you do it once. Run a piece of scrap, start to finish, to make sure you get what you want. Shallow cuts, smooth feed.

John

[Superglide]

No big deal. Small bites though. Be patient.

[Papa Jim]

I found it to be a bit harry until I built a parallelogram jig.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKiwTkX4EhE

[Cecil]

I also bought the Rockler Jig. I would have made my own, but it was 1/2 price, and my time is worth more than that.

I noted in Marc's video that he sighted across the saw blade, looking at the end grain, to estimate the approximate final profile. I also noted that he had two nice portable lights in the background. I would have set up one light at table saw height and looked at the shadow line on the boards end grain. A quality flash light is faster and more convenient though.

[Steve N]

Watch that Spagno video, he's got good stuff in there. He spends more time on figuring where your cut will be made in the stock than most, and unbalanced cove cuts are probably the noobs downfall. You want it centered and it's either left or right side heavy. Which may be good on a clock case. Unless you know how to set it up that is generally the hardest part. Small cuts, be patient, and that Rockler jig is very functional.

[Blaine]

Years ago, there was a website that had calculations/angles to give you the type of cove you want. I haven't taken time to look for it, but it may be on the same site where the "shrinkulator" is located (I think it's woodbin.com???). There are a lot of different coves you can cut depending on the angle at which you feed the wood and the tilt of the blade.

When I did it years ago, I actually clamped two fences onto my tablesaw top to capture both the front and back of the cove.

Be prepared to do a lot of sanding/scraping on the cove you make, but there is a lot of satisfaction in making your own cove molding.

Blaine

[Dan Moening]

I was kicking around the idea of making my own molding for a couple of bookcases I made last summer.

I found these handy for reference and bookmarked them:
http://dknudson.unixcab.org/covecut.html
http://www.finewoodworking.com/pages/nmw030_pop.asp
http://woodgears.ca/cove/calculate.html

Here's Mattias' article on cove cutting as well:
http://woodgears.ca/cove/index.html
The last two pictures in the article make the changing the angles very clear.

What ever you do ... make sure that your cove fence is very securely clamped down.