# Truly round baseboard corners?



## zepper (Aug 31, 2017)

Hey guys,

Now that I have our new floor in, I'm ready to install our new baseboards. The molding I'm using has this profile:






(We have some unusually long runs of hardwood, so I've left some expansion gaps a bit wider than usual to be on the safe side. We decided this staggered profile would look less bulky than 5/8" straight up.)

Thing is, our walls's outer corners have rounded beads. Some people do flat (45-degree corners) there and fill them in, or use two or more flat pieces so the angle's not quite as sharp. But my wife and I think that actual round corners would be more fun... You know, kind of '30s.

I just need to figure out how to makeor if that fails, where to buysomething the right shape and size:





It'll then be relatively easy to match the 1/8" bottom with a small piece of bent wood or other material:





The baseboards will be painted, so it doesn't matter what materials the corners are, as long as they're sturdy.

I don't think such a short piece of 1/2" wood could be kerfed to bend that sharply, could it? Maybe some kind of flexible trim (vinyl?), maybe two 1/4" pieces doubled up? How would you do it? 

Thanks for your ideas. And as usual, please pardon my noob-ness.


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## nealtw (Aug 31, 2017)

Most time there is a 1" piece in the middle with the ends all cut 23 degrees.
I did see a floor layer do a corner with about 5 pieces. He made them look like they were made to fit the round shape.


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## bud16415 (Aug 31, 2017)

They should sell the piece you need but if not there are places that will make what you need. Or do the 22.5 cut like Neil suggested. 
http://www.cornerblockstore.com/price list.htm


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## zepper (Aug 31, 2017)

Thanks for your replies, guys.



bud16415 said:


> They should sell the piece you need but if not there are places that will make what you need. Or do the 22.5 cut like Neil suggested.
> http://www.cornerblockstore.com/price list.htm



Thanks for the link, Bud. I see I could get the 14 we need made up for around $100 (plus I'd need to mail them a board sample). I can see if my wife will go for that. She'd rather I made some, though, if I could... She has this idea that I should be useful as possible, go figure.


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## zepper (Aug 31, 2017)

OK, I just had a nice chat with Neil at the Corner Block Store. (Talk about a specialty, huh?) He's a heck of a nice guy. That looks like the best way to go, as he'll do the whole profile including the bottom bit. 

Thanks again for the recommendation! It'll be a while till the corners are in and done, but I'll be sure to come back and post a couple of photos for you. (Don't get _too_ excited meanwhile, LOL.)

As for my wife, I'll just have to show her I can be useful in other ways. I realize any further discussion of that type is beyond the scope of this forum.


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## bud16415 (Aug 31, 2017)

zepper said:


> OK, I just had a nice chat with Neil at the Corner Block Store. (Talk about a specialty, huh?) He's a heck of a nice guy. That looks like the best way to go, as he'll do the whole profile including the bottom bit.
> 
> Thanks again for the recommendation! It'll be a while till the corners are in and done, but I'll be sure to come back and post a couple of photos for you. (Don't get _too_ excited meanwhile, LOL.)
> 
> As for my wife, I'll just have to show her I can be useful in other ways. I realize any further discussion of that type is beyond the scope of this forum.



Haha no we like a little salacious content now and again. Appeal to her monetary side and tell her you want to buy a wood lathe and table saw and a half dozen other woodworking tools so you can make the $100 worth of parts. She will put her foot down and tell you that is a stupid idea. She wins and you win and if you pout enough she will make it up to you. 

Don&#8217;t ask how I know this works. 

Good luck on the project and we will hold you to the pics.


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## zepper (Sep 1, 2017)

bud16415 said:


> Haha no we like a little salacious content now and again. Appeal to her monetary side and tell her you want to buy a wood lathe and table saw and a half dozen other woodworking tools so you can make the $100 worth of parts. She will put her foot down and tell you that is a stupid idea. She wins and you win and if you pout enough she will make it up to you.
> 
> Dont ask how I know this works.



LOL, that was the first thing that occurred to me.

My method's a bit different though. I just say, "To do this, I'm going to need [names of expensive tools + assorted technical terms]... But then I can use them to make and fix lots of other things for us." (This has actually turned out to be true a couple of times, remarkably enough.) 

But I didn't have the heart to do it this time. I think the guilt's catching up with me.


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## frodo (Sep 1, 2017)

WHAT !!!!!!!  

You have a chance to buy tools with moms permission and you are passing it up?

I outta rip up your man card.  :rofl:


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## Sparky617 (Sep 1, 2017)

EVERY project worth doing deserves a new tool.


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## zepper (Oct 8, 2017)

frodo said:


> WHAT !!!!!!!    You have a chance to buy tools with moms permission and you are passing it up? ... I outta rip up your man card.  :rofl:





Sparky617 said:


> EVERY project worth doing deserves a new tool.



You're both right, of course... I guess I'm just not cut out for this woodworking stuff. 

Get it, "cut out"? (Did I mention my jokes aren't good enough either?)


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## zepper (Oct 8, 2017)

Okay, I _could've_ sent off a sample of our baseboard and had nice, perfect corners CNC'd up, but where's the fun in that? So I thought it might amuse you guys to see how I ended up doing this.

Lacking a lathe (and the courage to learn to turn wood without maiming myself), I wondered how I could make round pieces of wood.

It occurred to me that hole saws&#8212;used for things like door handles and deadbolts&#8212;also make round cutouts. So I thought that if I got some of the right diameters, I might be able to cut and assemble the pieces I needed for my corners.

I'd need to cut two sizes, to match our baseboard's two thicknesses:








Our corners have a 3/4" radius&#8212;so imagining that as a circle, here's how I figured it, looking down from the top:







Thus I'd need 3 saws:

&#8226; 2-1/2" and 2-3/4", for the molding's two thicknesses

&#8226; 1-1/2", for the inner bore (against the corner)

But hole saws are sized by their _outer_ diameters (which seems only fair, as they're meant for holes, not cutouts). So to make pieces big enough, I needed the next saw sizes up: 2-5/8" and 2-7/8".

I got some nice fine-grained 1x4 fir (actually 3/4" thick), cut some rings out of it, and center-bored them:








I glued together enough pieces to cover our baseboard's height. They didn't come out exactly right, of course, so I sliced off each of the cylinder's ends to get a proper match:








[Continued...]


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## zepper (Oct 8, 2017)

I then used my miter saw to cut the cylinder into quarters:














That worked out great, as the kerf of my miter saw removed the extra 1/8" of diameter I'd needed to add to my saw sizes.  ;?)

_(NOTE: Rather than the fine-grained fir I actually used, those last three photos show the prototype I cut from a two-by-four&#8212;hence the thicker slices and wacky long end grain, which would've been unusable. It was also _really_ hard cutting such thick wood, which rubs against the saws's interior. Using thinner boards and making more pieces was the way to go.)
_
I applied wood filler to the outer sides, and sanded them smooth:








I couldn't nail the corners on through our walls's steel corner beads, so I glued them to the ends of their adjoining baseboards, which turned out to be fine (being sure everything was snugged up first). I primed the corners in-place, puttied and sanded the joins to even them out, then caulked and painted. The results were surprisingly passable:








Considering my various non-pro remodels around the place, our friends have graciously agreed to leave their magnifying glasses at home anyway.  :?)

Maybe it was silly to go to such trouble, but it was a fun challenge. I may have even found a new use for an old tool, provided one's masochistic enough.


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## oldognewtrick (Oct 9, 2017)

That turned out really nice zepper! Good job!


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## bud16415 (Oct 9, 2017)

:thumbup::thumbup:

I'll give you 4 thumbs up for that one. Nice job looks great.


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## Sparky617 (Oct 9, 2017)

Nice work.


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## frodo (Oct 9, 2017)

GOOD JOB !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I  taped your man card back together  and had it laminated


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## zepper (Oct 9, 2017)

frodo said:


> GOOD JOB !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ... I  taped your man card back together and had it laminated



LOL (in manly way of course)


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## maxdad118 (Oct 9, 2017)

Nice!! I like it when you don't have to pay an arm and leg to somebody else!&#55358;&#56611;Looks great!


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## zepper (Oct 19, 2017)

Just a short follow up... Gluing up some actual 3/4" (not-2x4!) disks:







And two corners glued/sanded/filled/primed in place, before caulking and painting (ideally, remembering to spackle the brad holes first):








If you look real closely, you may see the corners's radii are _ever_ so slightly bigger than the wall's, due to the inexplicable inability to order hole saws in finer increments (LOL). Fortunately, the excellent flat interior paint I'm using (Aura) does a good job masking this slight impropriety.

Thanks again for your encouragement, it means a lot.


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