# Scribed Joints to Skirting using a Router and Jig?



## nabbers

I have 100m of Lambs tongue skirting to fix in six hotel rooms and there's a lot of internal joints. I'll be using MDF if I can get it in 175mm, but I'm thinking of making a jig and using a router to do the scribed internal joints instead of cutting them at 45 degrees and collowing the cut with a coping saw.

Stuck on the correct router bit to choose. Thinking 1/2" shank/cutters with a bearing follower to top and then making a reversible jig/ box/ sleeve that I slide onto the skirting to my mark and follow with router.

Does that sound like a plan?

My worries are exit wounds and having to 'back off' the cut joint to allow for internal joints slightly more than 90 degrees so I dont get a gap on the front of the joint!

Please advise!


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## Chrispy

If your useing MDF why not mitre the corners?


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## Rob Platt

make a left hand and a right hand template and cut them by hand its quicker than cutting 45s
all the best
rob


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## nabbers

You don't mitre internal joints on skirting, if the corner isn't a true 90 degree, it shows awkward to fill gaps which a scribed joint doesn't. 

I can cut using my mitre saw, which leaves an accurate profile to follow, far more accurate than trying to draw a pencil line round a template into a moulding.

But I'm wanting to mechanise the process further using the router.


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## lincs1963

Rob Platt":3vsbppzf said:


> make a left hand and a right hand template and cut them by hand its quicker than cutting 45s
> all the best
> rob


+1 (hammer) 
Scribing with a small template is far quicker than cutting a 45 and then following the cut.


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## speed

i use a mitresaw and jigsaw goes pretty quick


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## jasonB

This is what you need, not heard much of them lately so obviously didn't catch on. Would be nice if you could get one of the bits and knock up a jig yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHULvWsoyGs

If its just MDF let the painter sort it out with caulk :wink: 

J


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## kostello

the best/ quickest way i know to scribe anything is to cut the angle as you would before using a coping saw then use a small angle grinder with a flapwheel or sanding disc to remove the excess and back cut............

its quick and accurate

do them all outside and them take it all in to cut to length and fit.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zyE6xyeHX4


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## andersonec

Sounds like there will be a lot of MDF dust flying round,,, why not just cut it with a fret/coping saw, I am sure you could cut 175mm of MDF in sixty seconds flat, and more accurately. A small offcut used as a template to scribe the shape and bob's your uncle. Cut the internal first, offer it up and mark to length for the external angle. 

Andy


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## Stormer1940

I'd say use the trusty chopsaw and then get the coping saw on it. Scribe and then cut to length. To be honest I hate mdf mouldings. I just find them too brittle and easily break out if you are not careful.

As someone has suggested already as seen as these will be painted then decorators caulk will be your best mate.


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## jonny boy

Hi,
Why does everyone have to make a jig or find some different way of completing a job that's been the industry standard for ages. The coping saw is the tool for the job. If it's not accurate or quick enough, you should practice your cutting not find another way to do it. I'd love to see all carpenters do the job in hand the way it should be done. We know the price of work has to be competitive and the quicker something is done, the more money you make but this ethos is resulting in poor workmanship.
I have been working on some church pews this week that have been removed from a derelict church, they want a new end fitting on where they were fitted into the wall and the way they were origionally made puts modern day joiners to shame, and they had no powertools! Even the feet on the pews had hand cut double tenons that fitted into the churches wooden floor. I'd like to see some of the modern day made stuff last 200 years after having thousands of backsides constantly using them! Come on woodies lets get back to Quality work or not bother at all.


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## AaronWright

As a joiner there is a couple of ways I do skirting s ,one is to mitre with the chop saw then cut the moulded part with a coping saw and the sttaight part of the scribe with a hand saw and add on 2-3 mm on the length so scribe gets pushed in tight with no gaps , or if you dont have a chopsaw available mark a 45 degree angle on the top cut down through the moulding with a hand saw the square a line and cut the square line with hand saw and break off the waste part and cut the moulded part cut with a coping saw and same as before add on 2-3 mm the reason that you dont mitre the interneal corners is that when it shrinks you see straight into a gap. On a simple sqaure room the first peice u fit is the length on the wall facing the door and then either the left or right wall working your way to the door. At the door you can have base blocks which makes life easy or if the architraves only have a moulding on one side they can go down the floor and the skirting butted into the facing, but when there is no base blocks being used and the facing is a bead and ogee type, the skirting will have ogee. It the becomes slightly more difficult as you will then need to join the skirting into the facing. To do this cut your skirting roughly 100mm long after cutting the scribe have the legs of the facing stitched on to where you want them to go with you 3mm list. On the skirting mark the very start of the flat part of the facing after the ogee, you now have your length just square it and cut a square cut. Once that is done you then come up you sqaure cut and where the ogee starts mark a 45 degree angle and cut then place your skirting where i is going to go and and use it mark your facing ang cut the facing. All being good and a bit of practice you will get it right. What you are trying to achieve is the ogee being continuos round the room with no stop even at the facings


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## chippy1970

Just mitre saw at 45 and either jigsaw or coping saw the scribe , we do miles of skirting in mdf, softwood and hardwood and that's the fastest and best way to do it. Just get a decent narrow blade for your jigsaw. I did once see a great scribing machine on this old house but it would probably cost a fortune if you could get one.

I know you want to speed it up and automate it somehow don't we all but its better to stick to the usual and to be honest it only takes seconds to do it anyway.


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## Phil Pascoe

Slightly off thread, but worth a mention-----------If you have any amount of work to do, check that all your moulded timber has come from the same batch. I got caught out with a load of 175mm skirting where the ogee was 10mm deeper on one half than the other. When I told the merchant he offered to change it, but fortunately I had to use a lot of short lengths so I got away with it.


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## superunknown

I would just make a template and jigsaw them all, that's got to be faster than setting up to router them, even with a jig.


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## Bradshaw Joinery

i see what you mean, if you had all your lengths measured then you could cut the scribes before you get to site, and have all the length cut roughtly.... save no-end of time.

the only issue i can see is that the router will not cut the back away so if your joint is over 90 degrees then there will be a gap, and obviously you need a little back edge removal so the joint pushes up really tight. i could see it working if you made 2 jigs, one each hand, with a 2/3 degree bevel, so the router sits on the angle on the jig, jig sitting on face side of skirting.?

right hand end scribes, you will have to precut in with a chisel to stop tearout.. but wouldnt be hard if using a flush trim cutter jig.


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