Been cutting crown molding wrong for 15 years and just figured it out yesterday

I have been doing crown molding since I started out in the late 90s, always cutting it flat on the saw with the spring angles. Never had massive complaints but I always had to do a lot of caulking and finessing to hide gaps. I was over at a buddy's shop in Nashville last week helping him with a kitchen job and he watched me set up a cut. He just shook his head and showed me how to cut it nested upside down against the fence. I thought the whole spring angle method was the proper way but apparently I had the miter and bevel settings backwards the whole time. First test cut with his method fit tight as a drum on a 45 degree outside corner and it felt like a punch in the gut. Has anyone else figured out something basic way later than they should have and felt like a complete amateur for it?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_ruby6d ago

Saw a YouTube video once that said the same thing and felt like an idiot for 12 years.

hayes.tara5d ago

Oh man, you just unlocked a memory I had buried deep. Did I once spend a whole weekend convinced that my microwave was secretly listening to my conversations because some random guy in a hoodie said so on YouTube? Yep. I even unplugged it at night for a solid two months like it was some kind of spy. Turns out I just needed to clean the filter and stop watching conspiracy videos at 2am. At least I only felt dumb for about three years before I realized I was being ridiculous.