Fitting Architrave Issue

ThisIsWeird

paperclap said:

I don’t have the luxury of a table saw. But, I do have a circular saw. When I was trimming down the doors with it, I was quite (pleasantly) surprised just how small a slither you could cut off. So might be worth buying a length of wood the same depth as the lining and cutting my own stripwood!

If you can buy strip wood already the correct thickness - but surely this will be a compromise, settling for, say, an average 6mm? - then it should be possible to slice even a 15mm wide piece in half to make two. Tho' not sure how!

A jigsaw could possibly be clamped, upside down, with just a wee slot for the bladed to come through, and a fence fitted to guide the strip? No need to get fingers anywhere near the blade. With similar work, a 'circular' can be turned into a 'bench', but again with no safety cover. Might it be that hard to even use a handsaw? Flat board for a work surface, with a blade slot coming in a few inches from one side. Fence guide either side of this - made from just the strip wood - to guide the long pieces over the middle of the blade slot. Even a further piece of strip wood on top of first ones, set slightly closer, and SW to be cut is now held snugly and fed through. Long steady saw cuts.

The state of the cut edges don't matter as they'll be hidden. The good edges can be glued exactly in line with the archi's inner face, and join be nigh-on invisible. A thick coat of primer, sanded afterwards, should fill any micro line.

FreeBear

ThisIsWeird said: A jigsaw could possibly be clamped, upside down, with just a wee slot for the bladed to come through, and a fence fitted to guide the strip? No need to get fingers anywhere near the blade. With similar work, a 'circular' can be turned into a 'bench', but again with no safety cover.

No. Please do not do this with either a jigsaw or circular saw. It just takes one tiny slip and you've lost a finger or sliced a good chunk out of your hand. And NEVER operate a power tool with the safety guard removed.

If you want thin strips of wood cut, pay a visit to a local independent timber merchant - Most will have band saws or table saws that are capable of taking thin cuts. Some may even have thicknesser planers to finish timber to the required dimensions. An alternative would be to seek out your local Men's Shed where you should be able to hook up with a well tooled wood worker.

GDB2222

Just going round in a circle, surely by far the quickest route is just to chisel off the excess plaster? You could do that, and sweep up the mess, in the time it takes to drive to my nearest timber yard, which is not very far away. 

grumbler

Easiest - possibly, but not the nicest IMO, but I'm a perfectionist.

GDB2222

grumbler said:

Easiest - possibly, but not the nicest IMO, but I'm a perfectionist.

All the mess is behind the architrave, which is what the architrave is for.  

ThisIsWeird

It's certainly a valid option, if a thicker archi is used. Position it, mark a line on the plaster, run a sharp knife down it and chisel away. Position new archi, which will be set below that surface level, and fill in the wee gap.

Yes, anything involving an exposed powered blade is clearly dangerous. There are precautions and contingencies that can be put in place, and it's a personal call whether to go there.

paperclap

Guys, no disrespect, but chiselling away the plaster to make it flush with the lining is not an option. Yes, it allows the architrave to sit flush from the lining to the wall. But, it then won’t sit flush with the skirting (same depth) below.

The wall is the source of truth. The change needs to happen with either the thickness of the lining or the thickness of the architrave.

ThisIsWeird

I can see that 'sinking' the archi into the plaster won't work due to it then not matching the skirting if the archi begins as the same thickness, say, 18mm, but what if the archi is thicker to begin with?

paperclap

Well if the architrave is thicker to begin with, why scrape the plaster back at all? May as well reduce the architrave (in places) to match the lining and skirting 

ThisIsWeird

Absolutely.

It just comes down to what's easier, with the tools available. Yes, I'd much rather route out the back to accommodate the plaster layer. Or add a trim to the front to increase the edge thickness on an 18mm archi - tbh, probably the method I'd use myself as I have a bench saw, and I think it's far less hassle.