Friday, September 15, 2017

Some Practice With Moulding Profiles - Part 2

In the previous post I showed two profiles I cut into 1 1/2" x 1" x 15" long stock; a cove with fillets and an ovolo with fillets and .
Less than 90° cove on left, 90° ovolo on right
Buoyed with confidence, I tried some more complex profiles.  Having never made mouldings before, I struggled with the layout.  I thought there would be a more geometric way to do it, and maybe there is, but in the end I just kind of winged it with a grid and a circle template.
A 5/8" radius ovolo and 1/2" radius cove, separated by a fillet
You can see some diagonal lines from my failed attempt to find locations to use a compass to draw the ovolo and cove.

Anyway, I used this template to transfer lines to the end of my workpiece.
Found it helpful to write the number of the plane I'll use to make the convex and concave shapes.
The first rabbet is marked at the location of the fillet separating the two shapes.
First rabbet planed away (red X denotes an incorrect layout line for the ovolo - try to ignore it)
Second rabbet marked out - it will provide "runners" for the round plane to ride on
Setting a marking gauge to the vertical line.  I'll mark the ends and top of this rabbet,
then set the gauge with the horizontal line of this rabbet and mark the ends and right side.
Second rabbet cut
In the above picture, you may also notice that I removed 1/8" from the right side.  As this was laid out, the cove ended in a 1/8" flat.  I thought when I was laying this out that there would be a fillet of some kind there.  Rookie mistake.
Chamfering the ovolo area in preparation for the hollow plane
Ovolo cut ...
... and cove cut
Here's one important thing.  When the extent of an ovolo or a cove does not end in a fillet, I penciled in the extent of the profile on the surface or side of the workpiece.  You don't want marking gauge lines in these places as they would need to be removed and might affect the profile.
The completed profile (you can see remnants of my pencil lines denoting the extents of the cove)
The last profile that I practiced with is an ogee shape.  It's similar to the one above, but without the fillet between the ovolo and the cove, and with the addition of a top fillet.
Profile on the right, showing the order of the 4 rabbets
(there's a rabbet no. 1.5 because I forgot to write that one in at first)
Working on the first rabbet - it's 1 1/4" wide, so I got out the Record #778
Cleaning up the vertical wall of the second rabbet
Messed up here - cut the thin right-most rabbet before cutting the rabbet for the cove.
This was a problem because I hadn't gauged the rabbet for the cove yet and I removed a reference surface.
the resulting profile came out not perfect, but pretty good
It takes some practice to get the transition right between the ovolo and cove.  And with my H&R planes not being perfect, it's even more challenging.  But this was a really fun exercise.  Here are the four profiles I made.
Nice line-up
This was just a practice exercise - I don't have any current projects that require mouldings.  But when I do, I think I'll be able to make them by hand.

My challenge is that I don't really know how to design mouldings and don't have a feel for what might look good on a particular project.  Anybody know any good books (or other resources) that talk about this?

Until next time ...

13 comments:

  1. How are the screw stops holding up for you? I've bent and replaced my set already.
    As for the mouldings, I say if it looks good to you, it's good. I like the #3 moulding the best (from L to R)

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    1. Hey Ralph. So far the screw stops are fine - haven't moved at all. But I still haven't done a lot of work on this sticking board. Time will tell. The poplar is so soft that I can't imagine the screws will last all that long.

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    2. How about Matthew Blick's book?

      https://lostartpress.com/products/mouldings-in-practice

      Steve

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    3. Thanks for the comment, Steve. I've got Bickford's DVD and he says the book covers the same stuff as the DVD, so there's no info on designing a moulding for an application. I'll keep looking, though.

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  2. Looking good!! Practice make perfect.

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    1. Thanks for the encouragement, Matt. It'll just keep getting better from here ...

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  3. Pretty sure youy mentuiioned Matt book before, if not get it. If you already have it get his video.

    Awesome work there Matt, nice looking mouldings you made there.
    A word of caution, moulding planes can get very addictive... :-)

    Hi, my name is Bob, and I have 51 moulding planes...

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    1. Hi Bob. I got the DVD and studied it while making these mouldings. The book has the same info, so there's nothing on designing mouldings. I'll have to keep researching to see if there are any resources on designing mouldings for particular applications.

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  4. Looking good -- I took Matt's class last November, great learning experience.
    Evenfall Studios maintains quite a nice library, which includes a 168 page pdf on Furniture Moldings by Warne: http://www.evenfallstudios.com/woodworks_library/woodworks_library.html#Furniture and Design. There are also some profile catalogs out there, like this one: http://wholesalemillwork.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/WM-Moulding-Booklet-2015.pdf. I have a few other pdf's that I've picked up, but don't remember where or I'd give you the links. I'd be glad to email them if you want to share your address, or if there's a way to send files here.
    Jeff

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    1. Hey, Jeff. That first link was just the type of thing I've been looking for. Much of the furniture in there is far more ornate than I'll ever make, but it gives me a good starting point for mouldings. Thanks a lot for that. I wouldn't mind getting the other pdf's that you mentioned - If you contact me using the "Contact Me" gadget on the right of the post, I'll have your e-mail address and can contact you that way. Thanks.

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    2. Cool. Tried the "contact me" but it doesn't appear to be completing ("sending" message appears and doesn't go away). So if you don't have my email yet, let me know here and I'll try again from another PC that isn't as squirrelly as this one.

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    3. Sorry Jeff, didn't get it. But it has worked before, so I hope another computer on your end will allow it.

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    4. Now it seems to have gone through.

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