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That hardware store seminar in Wichita that changed my whole approach to trim work
Back in 2015 I went to a free Saturday morning demo at a True Value in Wichita, just killing time because my wife was at a craft fair next door. An older guy named Gene showed how he copes inside corners on baseboard using just a cheap coping saw and a file, no miter cuts that gap up over time. I had been wrestling with miters for years, filling gaps with caulk, never really happy with the result. He let me try his technique on a scrap piece of poplar, and I got a perfect joint on my third try. I went home and redid my entire living room trim over that weekend, and it still looks tight today without a single bead of caulk. Has anyone else had luck switching to coped joints for interior trim, or do you still stick with miters?
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faith_price71d ago
Hold on, let me be the contrarian here because I spent a good decade doing trim work and coped joints drove me absolutely nuts. You got lucky with that scrap piece of poplar, but try that on some cheap MDF or primed pine and watch it chip and tear out like crazy. I've seen guys spend twenty minutes fussing with a coping saw and still end up with a gap that needs caulk anyway, so it's not always the magic bullet people make it out to be. A good miter saw with a decent blade, proper measuring, and a dab of glue gives me tight joints in half the time, every single time. Plus, unless you're a total perfectionist, caulk is your friend, and a thin bead on a mitered corner is way less noticeable than a wobbly coped line that's slightly off. I'll take a clean miter over a coping saw any day of the week.
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the_jake11h ago
Wow, you really went there with the MDF comment, huh? That's kind of a punch in the gut for me because I've been on the coping saw train for years, but you're not wrong about cheap materials splintering. I've definitely had that happen with some real junk trim from the big box stores where it just crumbles no matter how sharp your blade is. Still, I gotta say, a good sharp coping saw with a fine tooth blade on poplar or oak feels like butter to me, but MDF is a whole other beast. Your point about caulk being a lifesaver is spot on too, I've used it to save my own bacon more times than I'd like to admit.
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