A finish carpenter in Denver told me my cope cuts were backwards

I was coping crown molding for a kitchen job last spring and this older guy walks through, watches me for a minute, and says 'you're coping from the wrong side.' He showed me how to back cut the cope by tilting the saw blade 5 degrees. It closed up my miters perfectly with no gaps. Anyone else have a simple saw setting that changed their joinery?

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thomas_brown4mo ago

Ain't the bevel what gives you the back cut though?

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caleb_gibson4mo ago

Wait, are you sure tilting the blade 5 degrees is the right fix? That sounds like you're adding a bevel to your cope cut which could leave a weird gap on the inside of the joint instead of the face. The trick I was taught was to just tilt the saw a couple degrees to back cut the flat part of the crown, but only on the scrap piece you're coping against, not the actual cope cut itself.

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