Setting Up to Produce Dentil Moulding

Suggestions for fast ways to make dentil mouldings. December 27, 2008

Question
We offer two different Dentil Crown Mouldings; one has a 7/16" X 7/16" Dentil Insert that has the Dentil cut across the insert on a 45 degree, so in essence one 1/4" wide cut is made every inch or so along the length of the piece. We also offer a Larger Dentil Crown that has a 3/4" X 3/4" Dentil Insert that has a 3/4" Wide cut (1/4" Deep) on two faces of the Dentil Strip.

We produce the "Cuts" for this Dentil the old fashion way on the Table Saw with a couple of different jigs we produced in house; basic box joint type jigs. The problem is that it takes a long time to produce this little decorative moulding.

I know I am not alone in this situation. Can anyone lend any advice on a faster way to produce Dentil Insert for Crowns without buying a $20,000.00 machine that is specifically designed to cut dentil.

Forum Responses
(Architectural Woodworking Forum)
From contributor D:
Set up your radial arm saw with an aluminum base mounted to the flat underside of the motor so it will hold a router to the right of the motor. Disconnect power to the saw and remove the saw blade. True up the saw and table so you can lay out 12" or wider material, have the index come down from a hinged place on the fence, weighted to keep it and the material flat, and a foot pedal to raise it to move along to the next index. It will help to have dust collection to the router. After the routing, rip and final sand the parts thru the wide belt to eliminate the fuzz and tearout.

The router base on the radial is one of those things I don't tell people about. If you think about it, there are a lot of things that can be made this way.



From contributor H:
We use a dado set for our radial arm and we move our hinged index, which we clamp to the fence, by hand. We do the wide stock and then rip strips on the tablesaw.


From contributor C:
If you made a simple ratchet you could cut on both the pull stroke and the return stroke. Be careful I have seen radial arm saws take control.