TIL cutting crown molding flat takes way longer than I thought

Honestly, I spent a whole Saturday trying to cut crown molding flat on a miter saw for my dining room project. I kept tweaking the angles and making test cuts, and after 4 hours I only had two pieces that fit right. Ngl, I thought it would be a quick afternoon job, maybe 2 hours tops for the whole room. Every YouTube video makes it look so smooth but nobody mentions the constant trial and error. I ended up using a corner jig and it took me 8 hours total to get all 8 corners right. Has anyone else burned a whole day on crown molding?

2 comments

2 Comments

felixlee8d ago

okay but here's the thing, if you actually know how to use your saw and understand the angles it really is a two hour job tops. i did a whole living room in under three hours my first time and didn't use any jigs or fancy tricks, just the basic miter settings from the crown angle chart. honestly the trial and error is just people not reading the manual or checking their saw's calibration first. you probably had your saw out of square by a degree or two and that's why it took you all day. corner jigs are a crutch too, they just mask bad technique. if you can't cut crown flat in under an hour for a standard room then maybe stick to baseboards or something simpler.

hollyc928d ago

Three hours for a first timer is still slow even with the chart. I hit a ceiling last year on a 12x14 room and had it wrapped in 90 minutes flat with no jig, just a Bosch glide saw and a sharp pencil. The issue is nearly ALWAYS the saw being off. I check mine with a digital angle finder every Monday morning, and it drifts by half a degree after a week of cuts. Felix is right that jigs hide bad habits, but calling it a "two hour job tops" for anyone is a stretch. Some ceilings are bowed, some corners are out of square by three degrees, and no chart fixes that. If your walls are perfect and your saw is dead on, sure, two hours works. But that's not most houses.