Ron had the pleasure of visiting the old North Knoxville Historic District in Knoxville, Tennessee. Beth and David Booker own one of Knoxville's hundreds of beautifully restored older homes. The Bookers and their neighbors are intent on preserving and restoring the homes in this part of town, which were all built between the 1880's and 1940's. Beth and David had just about completed the renovation of their 1904 Queen Anne Victorian with the exception of a few finishing touches including a few doorways that were missing the original casings. The Bookers were unable to locate molding of the right type of wood or with millwork to match their existing casings, so they invited Ron to help them create new casings that were exact replicas of those found throughout the rest of the house.
Click here for a list of what
you will need in order to complete this project.
|
 |
| |
|
1. Cut wood:
- The existing wood casings in the Booker's home were made of cypress, so that is what they used to make their casings. They would begin by cutting the sides and the top casings out of 1 X 8 cypress planks. Ron set the table saw for the proper width and then gave David and Beth their first lesson in using a power saw
|
 |
| |
|
- David and Beth rip cut each piece to width. They would cut each piece to length a little later.
|
 |
| |
|
- The next step, before cutting the pieces to length, was to create the decorative grooves found on the original door casings.
|
 |
| |
|
- They used a table-mounted router, passing each casing section over the high-speed cutting bit. After the first pass, they turned the wood over and ran the opposite edge through.
|
 |
| |
|
- The finished result was wood with large grooves on both edges
|
 |
| |
|
- Next, they installed a small round nose bit to the table-mounted router.
|
 |
| |
|
- Once again they passed the board over the router bit twice, this time with the board placed face down on the router table.
|
 |
| |
|
- This next pass of the router added narrower grooves creating an overall pattern that was nearly identical to the original casing.
|
 |
| |
|
- The next step was to make the upper corner blocks and the lower plinth blocks.
|
 |
| |
|
- The plinth blocks would make the side casing look more like a column.
|
 |
| |
|
- They used a slightly thicker stock for the plinth and corner blocks and cut them to size using a sliding compound miter saw.
|
 |
| |
|
- They rounded off the corners of the blocks using a round over bit attached to the router. This was the final step in creating what Ron called "a door casing kit." They were ready to install the casings.
|
 |
| |
|
2. Casing installation:
- They began at the bottom of the doorway. They would first install the plinth blocks at the base of the casing.
|
 |
| |
|
- The door casings in the rest of the house were set back about ¼" from the inside edge of the frame and Ron wanted to duplicate this effect when installing the new casings.
|
 |
| |
|
- Ron showed Beth how to use a pneumatic nail gun to drive the nails straight into the wood. Beth used the gun to attach the plinth block to the doorframe and wall studs.
|
 |
