I am installing Laminate floors and having hard time in getting a nice
perfect finish at the corner joints of the quarter rounds. Using a
mitter saw with 45 degree cut but always leaves a gap at the corners.
Appreciate your input on perfecting the corner cut. Thanks

"Vam" wrote in message
om...
I am installing Laminate floors and having hard time in getting a nice
perfect finish at the corner joints of the quarter rounds. Using a
mitter saw with 45 degree cut but always leaves a gap at the corners.
Appreciate your input on perfecting the corner cut. Thanks

Inside corners or outside corners? Outside corners means your miter box or
walls are not at 90 degrees. Get an adjustable square to measure actual wall
angles, divide by 2, and set your miter box with that. Don't trust the marks
on the box unless you have checked them with a square. For inside corners,
run one leg of trim square into the wall, cut the other at 45, and cope the
end to fit over the first piece. Do a Google on 'coping trim'- the topic
comes up here pretty often.

Finish trim ain't rocket science, but it does take practice. A good miter
box and a good coping saw, not the cheap imitations, makes a big difference.
Buy yourself a couple sticks of the cheap pine trim of the same profile.
Dinged up ones from the discount rack are fine, and should only cost a
couple bucks. Spend an hour practicing a couple dozen times before you start
cutting on the expensive stuff.

aem sends...

Your mitre saw ain't "true"...either the grooves in the mitre box are worn
too large, or the blade angle on your power mitre saw is out of line.
1. Buy a new, good quality mitre box( and back saw)
2. Do an alignment on your blade (read the owners manual)




"Vam" wrote in message
om...
I am installing Laminate floors and having hard time in getting a nice
perfect finish at the corner joints of the quarter rounds. Using a
mitter saw with 45 degree cut but always leaves a gap at the corners.
Appreciate your input on perfecting the corner cut. Thanks

Vam wrote:

I am installing Laminate floors and having hard time in getting a nice
perfect finish at the corner joints of the quarter rounds. Using a
mitter saw with 45 degree cut but always leaves a gap at the corners.
Appreciate your input on perfecting the corner cut. Thanks

If you want a perfect joint, make a coped joint rather than a 45 degree
miter. Use a coping saw to rough it out, and sandpaper wrapped around a
dowel to shape it to a perfect fit. It shouldn't take much sanding because
a coping saw cuts pretty fine, and quarterround is an easy detail shape to
cope.

Bob

In a 100 + year old house, with floor dips and out of square corners, I got
mad and put a square block in each corner - - just like the original
builders did a hundred years ago.
"ameijers" wrote in message
...

"Vam" wrote in message
om...
I am installing Laminate floors and having hard time in getting a nice
perfect finish at the corner joints of the quarter rounds. Using a
mitter saw with 45 degree cut but always leaves a gap at the corners.
Appreciate your input on perfecting the corner cut. Thanks

Inside corners or outside corners? Outside corners means your miter box or
walls are not at 90 degrees. Get an adjustable square to measure actual
wall
angles, divide by 2, and set your miter box with that. Don't trust the
marks
on the box unless you have checked them with a square. For inside corners,
run one leg of trim square into the wall, cut the other at 45, and cope
the
end to fit over the first piece. Do a Google on 'coping trim'- the topic
comes up here pretty often.

Finish trim ain't rocket science, but it does take practice. A good miter
box and a good coping saw, not the cheap imitations, makes a big
difference.
Buy yourself a couple sticks of the cheap pine trim of the same profile.
Dinged up ones from the discount rack are fine, and should only cost a
couple bucks. Spend an hour practicing a couple dozen times before you
start
cutting on the expensive stuff.

aem sends...

"Curmudgeon" wrote in message
. ..
Your mitre saw ain't "true"...either the grooves in the mitre box are worn
too large, or the blade angle on your power mitre saw is out of line.
1. Buy a new, good quality mitre box( and back saw)
2. Do an alignment on your blade (read the owners manual)

What if the tools are true but the walls are not? That is very common.
Ed

What everyone else said, but you may also be cutting the trim too short. I
say this because you say there is a gap left. A test you may want to try is
take two scrap pieces of trim, cut them at 45s as though they were going to
fit in the corner. Fit them in. If the pieces make a 90 and they fit into
the corner fine, I'd say you're short on cutting the pieces. If they make a
90 but don't fit in to the corner, then your corner is out (the baseboard is
following the wall and is not at 90). Your friend at this point? The
caulking gun! Or, you can take the baseboard out (yeah, right) and
reinstall making sure the corners are at 90.

good luck

"Vam" wrote in message
om...
I am installing Laminate floors and having hard time in getting a nice
perfect finish at the corner joints of the quarter rounds. Using a
mitter saw with 45 degree cut but always leaves a gap at the corners.
Appreciate your input on perfecting the corner cut. Thanks

umm ... nobody mentioned my favorite corrective measure ... paintable
caulking.
This solves all my trim cutting deficiencies.

Mike

"Vam" wrote in message
om...
I am installing Laminate floors and having hard time in getting a nice
perfect finish at the corner joints of the quarter rounds. Using a
mitter saw with 45 degree cut but always leaves a gap at the corners.
Appreciate your input on perfecting the corner cut. Thanks

"Vam" wrote in message
om...
I am installing Laminate floors and having hard time in getting a nice
perfect finish at the corner joints of the quarter rounds. Using a
mitter saw with 45 degree cut but always leaves a gap at the corners.
Appreciate your input on perfecting the corner cut. Thanks
--
I'm sorry this got a little lengthy, but this advise comes with years of
experience of stopping in glass and panels.

If you are painting the quarter round then just prime it, cut it, caulk the
open mitres and smooth with a wet finger, and then paint it. You will be
happy with the results.

If you are dealing with stain grade hardwoods then that is a different
story. You can still buy wax sticks at your local home center and apply to
the open joints with great results, but if that is not enough then you will
need to spend a little more time on each mitre.

The mitre saw:
If there is runout on the shaft then the bearings are bad and you have a
wobble in the blade. You will always get a lousy cut with this.

You need a quality carbide tipped blade that has alternating teeth, half
with the point to the left and the other half to the right. This will give a
clean cut.

When I want extremely clean cuts I make auxilary wooden fences by screwing a
back piece to a bottom piece to form an "L". I then c-clamp this fence to
the mitre saw. I also apply sticky sandpaper like the ones used on orbital
sanders to the fence at the spot where I hold the wood with my fingers to
keep the wood from sliding when you cut it. A fresh cut into this fence will
also help you to line up any registration marks on your trim with the saw
blade. Make a fence for left hand cuts and a fence for right hand cuts. I
just glue and screw together an entire length of 8' AC ply and cut it into
pieces for future use.

With most chopsaws it will be very difficult to get a perfect 90 by
continually moving the blade to the left and right. If you really want to be
anal then cut all your stock a little longer than the peices you need with
90 degree cuts (dont forget to add for the outside mitres). Set up the saw
for either a left or a right cut and cut one end of each peice of trim. Now
set up the saw with the opposite hand cut and adjust it so the new cut plus
the previous cut will equal 90 degrees. Now measure and cut the remaining
end. Always leave the trim slightly long, you can force it down when you
nail it.

The trim:
If the outside of the outside mitres are open then you may be able to fold
the edges over with a sanding block or gently tap them closed with a hammer
and then sand the trim at the joint. You can also "back out" the inside of
one piece of trim with a sanding block. Backing out means to remove wood
from the part of the joint that is against the floor and wall that you dont
see. This will allow the joint to close.

The backing out method also works well for inside mitres that are open to
the outside. For miteres that are open to the inside you may have to use a
sanding block to take a little off the outside.
--
Remove the two instances of "REM" in my email address to reply.

"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in message . com...
"Curmudgeon" wrote in message
. ..
Your mitre saw ain't "true"...either the grooves in the mitre box are worn
too large, or the blade angle on your power mitre saw is out of line.
1. Buy a new, good quality mitre box( and back saw)
2. Do an alignment on your blade (read the owners manual)

What if the tools are true but the walls are not? That is very common.
Ed

I would guess that in at least 95% of the cases it is the corner that
is not square, not the tool. Of course aligning the tool is always a
good idea.

Harry K

One tip that I can add.

Nail the quarter round to the wall rather than to the floor. That way, when
the house grows and shrinks due to the seasonal change, you will not stress the
quarter round as the room grows and shrinks.

After finishing my whole house in laminate and ruining lots of quarter
round, I discovered that I was not allowing for the width of the saw blade.
Duh!

Suzi
"Vam" wrote in message
om...
I am installing Laminate floors and having hard time in getting a nice
perfect finish at the corner joints of the quarter rounds. Using a
mitter saw with 45 degree cut but always leaves a gap at the corners.
Appreciate your input on perfecting the corner cut. Thanks

Laminate flooring calls for the floor to float, which necessitates attaching
to the wall. Other than that, it would be impossible to put a nail through
laminate anyway!

Suzi
"Rileyesi" wrote in message
...
One tip that I can add.

Nail the quarter round to the wall rather than to the floor. That way,
when
the house grows and shrinks due to the seasonal change, you will not
stress the
quarter round as the room grows and shrinks.

"The Data Rat" remove X wrote in message news:7C14c.54631$TT5.16192@lakeread06...
After finishing my whole house in laminate and ruining lots of quarter
round, I discovered that I was not allowing for the width of the saw blade.
Duh!

Suzi
"Vam" wrote in message
om...
I am installing Laminate floors and having hard time in getting a nice
perfect finish at the corner joints of the quarter rounds. Using a
mitter saw with 45 degree cut but always leaves a gap at the corners.
Appreciate your input on perfecting the corner cut. Thanks

REminds me of my smart neighbor who heard me cutting something,
brought up a batch of 1x4 and asked me to cut them in 1/2 to use for
trim around his window. No problem. 10 minutes he is back
complaining that the pieces are not 2" wide. Took some education and
actual measuring to convince him they only start out at about 3 1/2"
and then the need to allow for saw kerf.

Harry K