A nice little mantle project

The past several weeks have been filled with larger projects, namely a vinyl siding job and a deck project.  Now it's time to get back to the projects I really like, and update the blog!

One of the things on the list is a mantle for over a fireplace.  The mantle needs to be roughly 60" long, and the customer wants to incorporate crown molding with dentil molding as well.  Typically, this is sold as a two piece combination, with the crown installed first, and the dentil applied to the crown second.

I've built the box for the mantle out of poplar - pretty simple stuff, and now on to the good stuff...

What I really want is 3/4" overhang of the top, past the crown.  To get that, I've marked the location at one end with a sample piece of crown, and then marked the other end for the overall length...

Once I've got the top cut, I can work in the crown molding (obviously the photos show I'm working on the piece upside down on the workbench)...

Typically, I hide a business card somewhere on my projects, in this case I stuck one behind the crown.  Ok, call me weird, just something I've always done...

Here's the crown attached.  Whenever possible, I use a nailer that shoots a headless pin (along with glue of course).  They're almost undetectable.

Now it's time to attach the dentil trim.  I start on one end, and see how it works out at the opposite end. The ultimate objective would be to have two matching blocks on both ends!  Fortunately, I've had enough insight to do a proper layout to begin with, and it works out great!

Time for sanding and painting!