cherryswitch

Hi All! My name is Marcia, from Georgia. I got my husband a router for Christmas in '06, and, as with all of his power tools, I use it more than he does! I do lots of home improvement tasks around the house - we live in a house that is almost 90 years old, complete with sloping floors and plain ol' 1"X6" baseboards, and door/window trim. I love a lot of the things about the house - especially the sloping floors.....they lend to the character of the house, somehow. However, I thought I might give those plain baseboards and door/window trims some distinction by routing a design into the outer edge - and it would be a lie of omission if I didn't say that I do love the smell of fresh wood shavings!

What I need to know from you vet router-operators is this: Can I accomplish my desired task without removing the trim? It would be sooo much easier to do this if I can router them as they are, and I have a heavy-duty shop vac, so the shavings and sawdust aren't a problem.

Let's hear some ideas, guys and gals!

Advertising

Hamlin

Welcome to the router forums.

The best way I've found to do such a job is to remove them. Makes handling of the router and the boards so much easier plus this allows you to see what's hiding behind them.

Others will chime in soon.

__________________
Ken

"A VETERAN"
"Whether active duty, retired, national guard or reserve - is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America", for an amount of "up to and including my life". That is HONOR, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it." -Author Unknown

chippypah

Welcome to the Router Forum Marcia,
Well anything is possible, but I can see a bit of a problem to you doing it as it is.
If as you say the floors slope or are uneven in anyway, then as you run the router over the surface the intended depth of cut would be variable and therefore not give the intended look.
So best remove them, and do a good job.
Cheers
Pete

__________________
www.chippypah-workshop.co.uk

bobj3

Hi Marcia

The router is a great tool but it has limits , the bit is almost alway 3" away from the edge of the router base, so to say you will run in to errors on the start and the end of a pass..not to say anything nails,screws,etc. that's now in the frames that will damage the bits..or the wood..

It would be nice if you could just do them in place BUT I would not suggest it take you time and take them off WITH CARE and rework them or replace them..most old frames can be made the same way ,not all but most...

Many will come off it parts or to say firewood..with 90 years of paint/stain you may not want to rework them (LEAD dust ) flying around.. take a picture or two and just make new ones and be done with it...

Have fun it's BIG job but it will be fun...

=========

__________________
PodCast videos
RWS on YouTube

http://www.routerforums.com/86898-post1.html
Besure and click on the Up Arrow key ▲ on the Youtube video, you can select other youtube videos on router tables
http://www.woodworkingonline.com/?s=dovetail
Machine Cut ▼
http://www.woodworkingonline.com/200...cut-dovetails/

http://www.woodworkingonline.com/woo...podcast-store/

http://www.woodshopdemos.com/menu2.htm

Bob J.

Dr.Zook

Welcome to the Router Forums Marcia. Glad to have another lady join our group.

__________________
Dave
the "Doctor"

In woodworking there is no scrap, only firewood.

Please edit your profile with a name and location so we can better assist you and make for a friendlier forum.

Mike

Rather than routing the moulding I would add to it. You can easily make 1/4 round to place on top of it, add other detailed moulding to the bottom to dress it out. Stacked mouldings are traditional in an older home such as yours and by adding you are less likely to have problems damaging the existing pieces.

__________________
Mike
Please edit your profile with a name and location so we can better assist you.