I'm restoring an old house. The living room has a 5' section of chair rail cut away to make room for a built in bookcase. I've removed the bookcase, and want to replace the missing molding.

The custom wood shops I have talked to all need more than $500 to make special knives for their shapers. I've heard there is an alternative, which is to make a casting of bondo or plaster. Has anyone seen this process written down somewhere? Thanks

depending on the complexity of the molding, it may be possible for a carpenter/cabinetmaker to do a built-up piece using a router to create the different curves, shapes and glue/nail it together.

the bondo or plaster might work. you would either need to make a latex mold of the existing profile or make a template of stiff plastic or metal to use to match the original, adding layers of material until you can draw the template over the old to new material evenly.

good luck and let us know the outcome

The molding is quite elaborate. I'm pretty good with a router, and no way I could do it. I've been to two shops that specialize in that sort of mill work, and they've said the same thing - they'd need to grind custom cutters. Ok for a whole house, but very expensive for 5'.

So I'm looking for the process and materials to make the female mold and the casting. Thanks

I ran across this problem when I was gutting my kitchen and a wall into the dining room. I had a nice chair rail in the dining room that was custom-milled and not like anything one can buy in shops these days. Somehow, about 1/3 of the chair rail I was saving got pitched along with the other debris by a subcontractor I had doing some of the work. I looked high and low in salvage yards to try and find a match for the 12' of chair rail I needed, to no avail.

Have you looked in salvage yards? We have one place that has a whole room full of old trim.

I tried to get it recreated, but to get the knives made it would be $250 plus the cost of labor and the materials. It ended up being cheaper to replace all the chair rail in the room for <$100. Not my first choice, but not too many other options.

Regards,
Eric

This may help. http://boards.hgtv.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/400403163...1073652/r/9671066652