DIY crown molding with a router

[mike4244]

As part of my bar project (and as it continues to evolve, because I basically build for the sake of building like Sarah Winchester), I will need to add crown to my top cabinets. The entire thing is sapele, because apparently it's all I use. You can buy crown molding, but it would be rather expensive ($100+ for what I need). There are two top cabinets, both 24" wide, with 64" of shelving spanning between them for bottles. They will be regular wall cabinets (12" deep) and the top will be spanned by a 12" wide board. I will be installing mini recessed canless lights in this one, so crown, aside from just looks, will serve to hide the top of the lights and the wiring (there will be about 6" between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling for overcabinet lighting as well).

You can't find 112" molding without a joint (or without exorbitant shipping costs). I don't necessarily care that much about having a "traditional" crown profile, and I wouldn't even be averse to more or less vertical trim. But I was thinking of doing some type of "crown" - even 45 degree - with a 1/2" or 5/8" board. I assume it would be possible to chamfer or miter two edges like typical crown, and then add various cove or V profiles to get some type of crown-approximating profile. I see plenty of bits available, but what about just winging it? I rarely (never) do this, but it seems like it might be worth trying to mix up a few different profiles and see what happens.

Crazy idea?

I bought a crown molding set of cutters  for use in a router table. I think there are three cutters in the Craftsmen set. Worked well, no sanding needed.
I also have run 30'-0" of cherry crown for installation in a customer's home. This I did with a Jet Planer Molder. I did not own any molding cutters for this machine but a friend has them. He told me to remove the planer knives and he will be over later on. He installed his cutters and a special carrier he made. Two passes, 10/15 minutes and I had my crown molding.
There may be crown molding cutter set for a table saw. Not sure. If you have router table , I think you can do a nice job with an Ogee and cove cutters.
The bevel is sawn after the profile is cut. Usually 38° / 52° is used for most crown. Sometimes 45° is used , but not as common.

[FS7]

[FS7]

I ended up doing a combination of both. I used some leftover 5/4 sapele, as the track saw cutoffs were more than long enough for the 112" piece. I was able to get about 1"+ x 3 1/8" out of them. Smaller cutoffs were easy to find.

I used a table edge router bit, which was a bit large for a handheld router but it actually cut very well. Cutting that by hand was a bit challenging as not only was the baseplate technically not large enough (I did the first few passes in the table), it wanted to slide or rock. When I do this again I'll come up with a better clamping solution and an adjacent board so the baseplate can ride on something else (both sides, maybe). A final light pass cleaned up most of it, at least for a first cut at molding that will be 8' off the floor and never touched.

I then put a single cove in the middle of the flat spot. This worked out well, and even with a suboptimal blade (I just left the thin kerf rip blade on) it produced a pretty clean cut that sandpaper was able to fix. I did use some extra support as recommended, but for a shallow cove I didn't have much trouble cutting it. I think it looks like a "real" molding and will go very well on top of the wall cabinet.


I definitely need more light on the bottom, so I will finish and install the moldings after I finish the lights. With the help of some blankets (to protect the countertops), some swearing, some bumped keg taps and spilled beer, some engineering, a car jack, and a stack of books, I was able to get this mounted on the wall by myself. The only good way to get light on the bottom seems to be from the back, as given the height all but the very cleanest solutions would be pretty conspicuous underneath the middle shelf. But with one small hole in the carcass, I can have an aluminum strip (five lights adjoined) illuminating the bottles from behind, and it won't be seen as long as I keep the shelf stocked (challenge accepted). If it was to be repurposed, a single plug could hide the hole. The other will be in the top of the right cabinet.

[FrankAtl]

That's looking great!

Frank

[joe1086]

I'll have a Blanton's, neat.



Looks great.

[jteneyck]

The molding looks good.  If you put a molding around the bottom of the upper cabinets, you could install under cabinet lighting and nothing would show.  

I can't tell if that's whisky, or bourbon, or both, but if you like bourbon, you might want to give Breckenridge bourbon a try.  

Nice looking cabinets, for sure.  

John

[FS7]

The molding looks good.  If you put a molding around the bottom of the upper cabinets, you could install under cabinet lighting and nothing would show.  

I can't tell if that's whisky, or bourbon, or both, but if you like bourbon, you might want to give Breckenridge bourbon a try.  

Nice looking cabinets, for sure.  

John

Thanks. The top will have real raised panel doors, and those are next along with finishing and installing the molding. The bottom I was OK with frame and panel since they are mostly out of the way unless you're behind the bar, in which case you need to be slinging drinks and not admiring cabinets. I did drill for the "behind bottle" LED strips today, so that's done. It would be pretty easy to add more lights under the cabinets if I wanted to. There's room for a light strip that wouldn't be seen (without molding) and there is actually just enough of a gap between the backsplash and the bottom shelf that I could probably push that 22 gauge wire in there without it being seen. It's an idea.

It is all bourbon. I used to be a scotch drinker, but ended up switching a long time ago because a decent bottle of bourbon was cheaper than a decent bottle of scotch. That may or may not be true any more. I have a friend in Colorado, so I've gotten to try more than a few Colorado whiskeys of various types. They are decent, and getting better. Breckenridge is one of the best I think and I started getting deliveries ten years ago (or more) when another friend was frequently traveling to Denver for work.

[grwold]

That looks fantastic.

But I'm not clear how you gathered all those (different) bottles, without any of them going empty!

[FS7]

That looks fantastic.

But I'm not clear how you gathered all those (different) bottles, without any of them going empty!

I assure you, they go empty on a regular basis.