“I found out making your own trim is not rocket science. Anybody can do it. As long as you can read and follow Woodmaster’s directions you’ll have no problem.”
What would you do? Would you pay a contractor $40,000 to install trim, or do the work yourself with a Woodmaster and save $32,000? For retired homeowner, Michael Beaty, the answer was simple.
On the advice of someone who owned a Woodmaster Molder/Planer, he bought one of his own and plenty of rough sawn oak. He made and installed his own trim, saved 80%…and kept the Woodmaster!
“My wife, Mary, and I bought an old farmhouse about 20 years ago. This old house dates back to 1837. Our intention was to live in it for a year or so then bulldoze it down and build a new home on the property. But the post and beam frame was in such good shape we decided to renovate and redo it instead.
You don’t need a huge shop to take on big projects. The Woodmaster is four key woodworking tools in just nine square feet — pro-duty planer, molding machine, drum sander, and gang rip saw.
This home was built in three parts. There’s the original, 1837 house. Then, in 1915, an owner put on an addition. We bought it in 1995, hired an architect, and put on a second addition. We raised the house and added a foundation underneath. We added a living room with high vaulted ceilings and a masonry fireplace.
The three parts of our home were built at very different times and we wanted to tie them all together aesthetically with the wood trim work — baseboards, window trim, door trim, stairway banister, and so on. It’s been a long project but we’re almost done now.
He saved 80% doing it himself with a Woodmaster
I got three estimates on having a contractor do that work and got quotes from $40,000 to $43,000. I happened to go to a nearby hardwood lumberyard and asked about wood trim. They said they knew someone who’d made his own trim with a Woodmaster Molder/Planer and had done the same kind of renovation we were doing. They put us in touch and he advised me to get an 18” Woodmaster Model 718 and make the trim myself. He suggested I do what he did: get rough cut, kiln dried lumber, have it straight-lined on one edge, and do the rest on my Woodmaster.
I did what he said. I ended up saving about 80% of what a contractor would have charged. And I got to keep the Woodmaster!
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“I had no woodworking experience but making molding is not rocket science”
I had never done anything like this before. I had no real woodworking experience, no lessons. I found out making your own trim is not rocket science. Anybody can do it. As long as you can read and follow Woodmaster’s directions you’ll have no problem. Here’s what we did:
They researched old public buildings and measured the trim
We got the Woodmaster and started going into local courthouses and old public buildings in our area to see what kind of trim patterns were used at the time our home was first built. There are a lot of oaks in our area and a lot of the trim in older local buildings was made from oak. So that’s what we used. We took measurements then looked through Woodmaster’s Molding Pattern Catalog and picked the Woodmaster knife patterns we wanted.
4-in-1 Woodmaster planed, ripped, molded his trim
We had rough cut oak delivered and I planed it on the Woodmaster to a consistent 3/4″ thickness. Then I figured out how much trim I’d need for all the windows, doors, and the baseboards. I ripped it all to the right widths on the Woodmaster. Then fed the blanks through the machine with knives installed in the cutterhead and made molding.
I like to put the finish on the trim before installation. We used Minwax matte clear stain so we could accent the grain. Then I installed it myself using an air nail gun. To attach the small pieces — borders and decorations — I used a hot glue gun.
All told, I probably ran 900 board feet through my Woodmaster. The trim really looks great and ties this whole home together. The machine worked perfectly and the job went along fine.
Age is no barrier to big renovation projects
This kind of work is NOT just a young person’s game. I’m 71, retired, and I’ve been working on this house for several years. I tore everything out and put in new wiring, new plumbing, and now new trim. It’s all insulated so it’s cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
For anybody else who’s thinking of doing this kind of old home renovation, I’d suggest doing your research first. Visit old public buildings to see how they were put together back then and what kind of trim they used. Find a local supplier of kiln dried wood native to your area because that’s old houses were made from local materials. Get a Woodmaster like I did, and do the planing and molding yourself. Read Woodmaster’s directions and go slow at first.
The Woodmaster is a great machine. I like it and I don’t want to sell it even though I have no big projects coming up. But it’s very handy to have and you can save a great deal of money doing it yourself. Really, doing what we did was a relatively easy and interesting project!”
— Michael Beaty, Woodmaster Molder/Planer Owner, Lainsburg MI
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