Curved Crown Moulding

[terry]

Have any of you had any experience or ideas on how to cut a curved crown moulding? I have a builder that has a recessed ceiling that is a 10 foot diamiter that he wants crown moulding in. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Terry

[mrdovey]

Terry...

Curved wall or curved ceiling?

...Morris

[mrdovey]

Must be time to get some sleep. I think I just set a record for dumbest question...

[fleinbach]

Terry,

This is one area where the ShopBot would not be cost-effective. Have you ever heard of flex molding? Here is a link to one manufacture and there are several more http://www.ultraflexmoulding.com/pdf/crown_profiles.pdf

Now, if you were making a custom crown with a profile that is unique and certainly unobtainable using flex molding, that is doable on the ShopBot. I have made curved crown moldings for my theater rooms by layering MDF and combining multiple router bit profiles. Usually this is for the bulkhead over my curved stages and I have complete control over the curve.

But it's a different story if you have to make any curved crown to fit an existing curve. I had to do this one time so far for an oval recessed ceiling. The longest dimension of the oval was 16 feet. I had to make a template of the oval in the field. Then using a grid system transferred it into my CAD program. This had to be custom-made due to the fact that it had a rope light incorporated in the design. I figured Flex molding wouldn't work very well in this application.

I wish I had kept more accurate hours but my best guess is that the $800.00 I charged wasn't enough to cover the time spent.

[gerald_d]

Out here we still have craftsmen who form them with a template and "plaster-of-paris", the really old-fashioned way.

[gene_marshall]

terry,
i have made many curved moldings out of wood.
Either curve(ceiling or wall) can be done.
However, acan or other 3d moldings can only be done on the wall curve, in a single peice.
To make the ceiling curve, with 3d releif, you would have to make sections and join them after machining.
If your project is a standard molding profile, you can machine these on the bot, but due to the bit not cutting perpendicular to the surface, you will be doing some sanding.

I design these on artcam. that's where we do all of our design work.

Truth is that most molding machines wont cut a profile that steps out that large
Franks method will work with dimensional lumber as well.( I might have been closer to $3000 by the sounds of it)

Most builders would opt for the flex molding with a faux finnish. Simply cheaper.
and since it's up in the air, that may just make more sense.
If they want solid wood, your in.
And if you need more help programming it, you can e-mail me direclty.

Cheers
Gene

[fleinbach]

Gene, can I get you to do my bids for me?


I don't make a lot of money, but boy do I have fun!

[gene_marshall]

Sorry Frank, Seems like some weeks all I do is bid jobs.
Gene

[fleinbach]

Darn!....