Why Cope Crown Molding?

When deciding to install crown molding in my house, I did quite a bit of online research before jumping in. There is a lot of good information out there on internet sites as well as YouTube. There were some good videos showing how to cope crown molding. However, I could never quite figure out why. I found out pretty quickly on the very first inside corner I attempted to install. Basically, it's not a perfect world. It was frustrating spending time trying to get to 45 degee pieces to fit together without any gaps. I went ahead and tried coping, and even though there were extra steps, it was much easier fitting the pieces together (especially when working by yourself).

Normally, when installing on an inside corner, these are the steps to follow (assuming you are using a miter saw and cutting 'in position').

1. Use a protractor to measure the inside corner angle (most likely it is 90 degrees).
2. Divide the angle by 2. For a 90 degree angle, you get 45. This is the angle to use for setting your miter saw.
3. For the left piece on the corner, set the miter angle to 45 degrees on the right side. The molding piece you will keep will be to the right of the blade.
4. For the right piece on the corner, set the miter angle to 45 degrees on the left side. The molding piece you will keep will be to the left of the blade.

If you are coping, skip step 3 above. The piece will fit directly into the corner with a straight edge. Cut the right piece the same as in step 4 above. The right piece now needs to be coped. This basically means you will cut the back out in order to have a thin edge on the right piece that will fit neatly against the left piece. Check out the video below to see a demonstration.

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Tools Needed to Install Crown Molding

Installing crown molding is a great way to enhance the look of any room. I recently spent quite a bit of time searching the internet for information on how to install crown molding. There is quite a bit of information out there. This is the first entry in a series to provide a little more end-to-end information on the topic as well as fill in some gaps of information I could not easily find (or understand).

This first entry will provide some basic information on tools that will be needed along with some relative cost information. This will help you to plan ahead on whether or not you actually want to take on this type of project.

• Miter Saw - Most important item if you plan to install crown molding in several rooms. If you are installing in 1 or 2 small square rooms, you can possibly get away with a miter box ($4 to $14) and a back saw ($10 to $20). However, for multiple rooms or a combination of inside and outside corners, a decent miter saw is needed. These saws range from $99 to $700. I found a good one for just under $300. Check out the video at the end of this post for some key features you will want in a miter saw.
• Jigsaw - If you will be doing any coping at all, then a jigsaw will work the best. You can get a coping saw for $8 to $10. However, if you will be cutting a lot of corners, your arms will grow weary quickly without a jigsaw. Jigsaws run from $25 to $230. The one pictured below works great at $99.

• Brad Nailer - This makes it easy to nail the crown and run from $70 to $300. I asked myself when I would ever have a use for this tool again, and decided to stick with good old hammer and finish nails. This also meant getting a nail punch. Easy tools to find for under $30.

• Files - Not all cuts are perfect. Sometimes some files are needed to clean up edges, especially if you are coping. Another under $30 set of items.

• Protractor - This is used to measure angles on your walls. This can run about $12.
• Caulk - To apply to top/bottom edges of molding after installed.
• Spackle - My preferred compound for covering nail holes.
• Miscellaneous - Clamps, tape measure, pencil, safety glasses of course.

I don't have a lot of storage or work space, so I ended up making a bench for the miter saw out of some 2 x 4's and some saw horse brackets. Check out more in the below video.

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Setting Up Subdomains With Blogger

When initially contemplating the Ham Grown site, there was an immediate awareness of a primary problem. Blogs are typically dedicated to a focused subject area or topic. However, there were many video clip ideas that just did not fit with a single genre.

Instead of breaking out subject specific blogs for these clips, it started to make more sense to use a single domain (i.e. hamgrownvideos.com) to host the different subject areas. The problem to solve was how to use existing free blogging services like Blogger and break up content into multiple pages while giving the impression to the outside world that the various blog topics are hosted as a single service.

It took some internet searching and quite a bit of trial and error, but a solution was found that seems to fit. Here's the steps taken:

1. Identify your base domain name (in our case - hamgrownvideos.com) and verify it is not already used (try entering the domain in your browser, or go to a domain service like register.com or godaddy.com and check). If available, go ahead and purchase the domain. This will ensure you can re-host the service later if needed.
2. Create the initial blog through Blogger at https://www.blogger.com/start. Use your base domain name for the initial blog (in our case, it started as hamgrownvideos.blogspot.com).
3. Create additional blogs with names formatted as basename-subtopic.blogspot.com (notice, that is a dash ('-') between the basename and the subtopic).
4. Under your Blogger account 'Settings' screens, change the base domain to publish as a 'Custom Domain'.
5. For each subtopic, create appropriate 'A' records under your domain service (i.e register.com, godaddy.com, or what ever provider you are using).
6. Under each subtopic blog, go to the 'Settings' screens and change the domain to publish to the appropriate custom subdomain (e.g. this page uses 'instructional' as the subdomain - http://instructional.hamgrownvideos.com/).

Since seeing is often better than reading, check out the video clip below for a demonstration.

Let me know if this works for you.

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Instructional Page

This page is dedicated to instructional videos. There is no common thread on topics except that you will see information on areas (technical and non-technical) where we have looked for help on the internet, but either could not find a solution, or had to piece together information from various sources to complete a task.

Contributors may not have specific industry knowledge or licensing, but will show what has worked from a practical perspective.

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