Making the baseboard trim

Ok… so the room isn’t totally done.  Just almost done.  Yesterday I made the baseboard trim.  I had decided that I wanted trim that was taller than I could get at the box store, so I purchased a router bit to make the molding.  Initially I was going to use some of the red oak I have sitting around to make the trim.  But that would require me milling the lumber.  And since it was going to be painted anyway, I started with 1×8 pine from home depot.

The router bit for making the trim

First I made a test piece from a piece of a 3/4″ x 7 1/4″ board I had sitting around.

The sample piece of baseboard trim

This allowed me to check the look of the trim before I decided to go purchase the lumber.

Test fit of trim - chcecking how it matches up with the door trim.
Checking the fit - relative to the outlet placement

After Ben and I had agreed that the trim was a good fit to the room, I went out and picked up the lumber and spent the afternoon milling the baseboard trim and priming the trim.

Today, I plan on painting the trim, and will put it in tonight (or later this week if the paint isn’t dry enough to install today (It is humid and raining – it may take longer to dry than normal).

At least Ben has been sleeping in the new room – he is very happy to have a larger room.  He just hasn’t moved all his stuff over; he is waiting for me to finish the trim before he does that.

3 thoughts on “Making the baseboard trim

  1. Hi,
    You make this sound easy. Can you tell me what router bit you used for this?
    Also, any tips that I should know, like speed, or the need of a feather board?
    Thanks for your help.
    Doug.

    1. Doug,

      It actually wasn’t that hard. I think it was much easier because I purchased 1x boards at Home Depot so I didn’t have to mill any of my own lumber. The pine was also pretty soft, so it wasn’t that hard on the router. I used an Amana Tool Architectural Molding Router Bit (Bit 54220).

      I don’t remember the speed, but since I was painting the trim, I didn’t worry if I got a litle burning. I don’t remember if I used a feather board, but I think it would be a good idea. The only real lesson I learned, was the 8′ long boards were difficult to keep balanced when running across the router table. I think an infeed and outfeed support at the height of the table would make the cutting a lot easier. I also took several light passes, with the final pass being very light.

      Hopefully this helps.

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