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The secret to tight-fitting joints is knowing how to adjust the cuts to make them conform to all these wacky conditions. In this article, we’ll show you a bunch of tricks you can use to cut door and window casing and baseboard joints to fit perfectly, even when you have less than perfect walls and jambs.
Tools for Perfect Trim
Even the best carpenter can’t cut a tight-fitting joint with a dull saw blade. Invest in a good carbide trim blade for your power miter box. Read the labeling on the package and choose a blade designed for cross-cutting trim on a power miter box. A thin-kerf 60-tooth blade costs $40 to $80 and will make even the least expensive miter box perform like a champ.
Also rent or buy a power trim nailer and compressor ($50 per day to rent). It’s much easier to get great results when you can hold the molding in place with one hand and drive the nails with the other.
Shaving Technique for Tough Corners
How many times have you set your miter box exactly on 45 degrees and cut miters on a pair of moldings only to discover they don’t fit? Well, don’t worry. There’s nothing wrong with your miter box or your technique. Miters almost always have to be shaved to fit perfectly.
One method is to simply adjust the angle slightly on your miter box and recut both moldings. The trouble is that making tiny adjustments to the cutting angle is difficult on many power miter boxes. A quicker and easier method is to place a shim against the miter saw fence to slightly change the angle. Move the shim away from the blade for smaller adjustments and closer for larger ones, or vary the thickness of the shim. Remember, both pieces need the exact same cut to fit precisely.
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