 Okay, let's look at coping now Years ago what I used to do was I'd take all of my crown whenever I had to cope it I'd clamp it down or hold it down against my workbench and then I'd take my coping saw and I'd reach in here Always starting at the bottom of the crown. Remember this is the OG's. That's the top So I'd always start at the bottom because it kind of overlaps the previous piece of crown and I'd start making my Cope cut right there and that's one of the reasons that I always move to my right when I'm installing crown Because when I go to cope it it's much easier to start at the bottom and if I move to my right That means I'm always coping the left hand and to the molding just like this one So it makes it really easy to start the saw right on the left hand in and make my first cut and then Come up through this cove or whatever other profile is in the crown and another thing I used to always clamp it down like I said and coped it with it lying down flat against the table And when I did that I undercut it severely can't really tell how much to undercut it So I'd undercut it until you could almost see through the molding. There's a much easier way these days I use a coping jig and I use it because David Collins insisted that I use one actually if you read the instructions that come with Collins coping foot Which I'm going to demonstrate in just a minute how to use this you read the instructions You'll see that David Collins who makes the Collins coping foot tells you to make this coping jig it makes it much much easier to cut a cope joint Whether you're using the coping foot or whether you're using a coping saw Now this coping jig is really simple all it does is it holds your material on its back So when you cut your cope your blade is plum and you're cutting through the material And if you keep your blade plum you'd be cutting a perfect butt joint which is really what a cope is A cope is nothing more than a butt joint Here's the butt joint a cope joint is nothing more than a butt joint Now imagine this here's the next piece that would meet into this inside corner And if we take all of this raw wood and remove it with a coping saw This piece would go straight down like that and this profile once it's coped out would butt right into the next piece of molding And that's really all we're after So if we cut this cope joint perfectly plum it should work Hmm theoretically I'm not going to use this hand saw I'm going to use My Collins coping foot and I'm going to hold it the same way If I were cutting plum it might work but I know it's going to work if I just tip the saw a little bit out of plum And I'm not talking about a lot. I'm talking about the difference between being plum and being slightly out of plum As I'm making the cut through this profile So Take a look at this coping jig here It's actually a little bit of a fancier one than David recommends I've got a couple of pieces of t-track here and some teed bolts right here that make this adjustable So I can actually slide this fence in and out for different sizes of crown holding So I can put this jig down on my workbench Put my crown in here and then roll it until it sits flat against the fence Then bring the adjustable fence in and tighten that down And then I can take a clamp and lock this whole jig down against my workbench And get it in there really good and tight So it won't move and the last thing I'll do Is I'll use a call just to scrap a wood that I can put over the top of the crown Slide that a little bit so I'll be able to work on it and then I'll take this best of clamp And clamp this thing down real good And that's what I need to do if I want to hold this piece firmly so I can cut a precise co-joint on the end of this piece of crown I'm going to hold the jig saw in two positions while I'm making this cut This is the push position. It's the first one I'll use. This is where I'm pushing the saw away from me I'm going to put my fingers on top of the molding I'm going to take the nose of the tool and put it underneath behind the molding And then when I make my cut I'm going to rock the motor back down like this And then lift the motor up as I make my cut I'm not going to just push the saw into the material I have no control over depth of cut if I just push the saw The only way I can really control the depth of cut precisely is if I rock the motor and rock the blade up into the wood The second position I'm going to use is the pull position And that's when I'm pulling the saw toward me. I'll show you that one in just a second So that was the push position And now I'm going to switch the tool into the pull position That means I'm going to take the tool instead of holding it Cradle in my hand in this direction I'm going to take my hand and reverse the tool and lay it down in my palm of my hand Cradled in this position So I'm actually pulling the saw. I'm pulling the blade toward me And I'm going to do that and come right into the molding up here And make a little overlapping miter. I'll show you what I mean So the first step in this position is to cut a little overlapping miter And stop the saw then back up and come back in and come back in anywhere you want to It doesn't matter where Just come back in and slowly get to the paint line Let that blade vibrate. Let it run back and forth until you get right up to the edge of the paint line And then rock the tool all the way through that code And whatever profile you have in the body of the crown Until you get to that last blade cut and the race to fall away To finish the cut turn the jigsaw around into the push position And then let that blade rub and vibrate against the waistwood Until it comes up against the paint line Then start rocking the back of the motor and cut your way right back down the code So you get that overlapping miter So I finished the cope If this edge gets a little bit ragged you can always sand it a hair Just like 120 sandpaper and just clean it up a little bit But that's the cope cut with an overlapping miter Now let me show you how this fits together on the wall In order to make that overlapping miter work I have to cut a notch in the previous piece at a 45 degree angle And just kind of make a mortise It doesn't have to be really deep And don't worry about making it too deep Because the cope is going to cover that whole area So here's that little notch that we just cut at a 45 degree angle And here's the overlapping miter that we cut into that cult joint I'm going to take that overlapping miter and drop it into that notch And then drop the rest of the molding right against the profile And there's your finished joint, nice and tight You know I used to make this little overlapping miter About as thick as the paint I mean really really thin And the problem that is Every time you get near a wall Every time you step climb in a ladder All it has to do is brush against your shirt or something And it snaps off and all the effort you put into doing that is wasted That's why I cut them about an eighth of an inch A strong sixteenth of an inch thick And that's why I have to make that notch in the previous piece Now you can avoid that whole business In fact you can cut your cope joints much faster And David Collins actually gets a little bit upset with me When he finds out that I'm teaching people how to do this little overlapping miter thing Because David believes That if you're good enough to cut cope joints on your inside corners You want people to know your cope in your inside corners You don't want people to think that you're mitering your inside corners But remember this technique is useful If you're doing stained grade material If you're doing a mantel piece or something And you want all your material to look like the grain runs Right around a corner This overlapping miter technique is really useful But you don't have to use it all the time Instead you can do this much quicker if you cut a butt cut cope Let me show you what I mean I'm going to take this piece back to the saw I'm going to cut the tip of this off So I'm going to put the crown back in the saw Swinging the saw back to 90 degrees And put the laser right on the short point of the miter As it crosses this phillic on the bottom of the mold Remember there's the bottom of the mulling because it's upside down So I want that laser right on the short point On the edge of that phillic right there Now let me show you how this butt cut works Take the profile and tie it together That little OG And notice how that butt cut just butts into the bottom of the previous piece of crown And we get a nice tight joint all the way across That is a butt cut cope To cut a butt cut cope from scratch first We'll cut an inside corner miter on the left hand end of this piece Just like we would for any cope cut But next we'll take the saw And we'll turn it to 90 degrees And we'll cut off just the tip of this miter Just from the short point of the phillic on the bottom of the crown Remember it's upside down We're just going to cut this off right to the short point And lose this tip And make sure you measure this first Make sure before you cut this tip off That you hook your tape measure on that long point And at least make your measurement mark for the length of your piece We'll put that laser right on that short point Now let me show you how easy it is to cope a butt cut cope like this one So I always start the same way Cutting these fillets first You need my blade just a little bit out of plum And cutting right in alongside of each one of the fillets And then I make relief cuts right into this OG Many of them as I can here I'm going to make three of them Once the relief cuts are done I come in from the top of the molding And I follow that OG as best I can But I really can't get right up against it I just want to get rid of most of the waste Once the waste is gone I can turn my saw and put the nose of the tool against the back of the molding And just wave the blade And now I change positions And reverse the saw in the palm of my hand So I'm in the pull position And I let the blade vibrate and rub against it There's a bottom tip of the molding And I'm rubbing against the waist Not near the paint line And that way the blade will slowly come Right up to the paint line And once it's on the paint line I can bring the blade right up through that cove By rocking the tool gently All the way up to the top