Installing Crown Molding

5. If you cannot affors the powered mitre saw, then take your lumps and wither use some wood filler, or buy a mitre saw and do it right or hire someone.
6. Crown molding is quite do-able for the average homeowner, but you are going to do some learning on the way, and you will makes mistakes before you get good at it.
7. Try visualizing the crown molding as a sqaure-profile block of wood, and it may help you visualize the cuts before you make them on the saw.
Good luck.

For the average homeowner:
1. Cut the tow small test pieces, as Tim says, and then calibrate you saw cutting accordingly.
2. Cut the molding by laying it up against the saw fence as he says.
3. Later on as you get the hang of it, you can do the 33.8 degree cuts in the flat position, if you are brave.
4. His method work perfectly for expensive real wood trim: Do the Calibrating First, of course. (Continued at 5.)

compund mitre saw is alot safer to use, for crown, because you can lay the molding flat on the table. holding the wood at an angle on the saw is not very safe.

That's not entirely true. What's more, not everyone can afford an expensive compound miter saw that is intended for this specialized use.

yes its entirely true. if someone dosen't have access to the proper tools to do a job safely then they shouldn't do the job at all. compund miter saws are expensive but reattaching a finger cost more.

Let's go backwards. First, you can safely use a regular miter saw as I show by clamping the wood to the fence, clamping a stop on the saw table, etc. So there is a way to cut with the wood without risk of losing a finger. And if you can get access to national accident data, I'm quite sure that you'll discover that compound saw you seem to like so much is a very dangerous tool. Hundreds, if not thousands, of fingers have probably been cut off by compound miter saws.

this is how to cut the moulding not install, i want to know how to make it look good once up! there are gaps either along the bottom or top and against my corner pieces. is paintable caulk the answer or nailing it in tightter???

Spackle it..... and caulk where needed.

The only problem is what do you do with finished wood crown moulding? Calking and spakleing is not an option as we have to make it look as flawless because of the finished wood. We had no problem with MDF or painted crown before because we could "fix" the flaws with spackle and caulk...but what do you do with Cherry wood finished crown? YIKES!

Simple. Cut it the way I show in my Crown Molding Ebook. You can make perfect cuts in prefinished material.