How would you mill this profile?

[gerti]

I will be laying a floating wood floor next to already existing flooring material, both over a slab foundation. As the two floors have different heights, I can't use one of the standard trim pieces that come for floating floors. So I'll have to mill my own. Here is roughly how it should look like:



As drawn above 1" wide, 13/16" high.

I am thinking of doing I and II with a router and some round-over bits (exact profile is not that important as long as it is pleasing and practical), and III and IV using a dado head cutter (with the work piece on the side so that the surfaces sitting on top of the floors will be smooth). Alternatively II and/or IV could be done with the router as well.

The first cuts will be easy, but then the piece will have an odd shape and I am not sure how to safely perform the cuts. I am thinking of doing III first, then IV, using a dado blade on the table saw. For both cuts there should be enough level surface for featherboards to work well. But then I dont know how to do I and II. Maybe cut a few feet of a utility profile that is the negative of III and IV, so I could mount the wood in there and then have level surfaces to work with on the router table?

What tools would you use, what order and how would you support the cut?

Thanks

Gerd

[LCHIEN]

I'm not sure how to do I & II.
Perhaps simple bevel cuts would work for I & II, you can break the sharp corners with sanding.

As for III and IV,
you could make the smaller dado III leaving enough material to ride on the table top stable and unassisted except for a push block.
Then I would attach a temporary board as thck as Dado III is high but somehwat wider to make it easy to handle. You could nail it to the workpiece from underneath and leave only holes that would not be seen later, when removed. The you could use the temporary board as a stable piece to cut dado IV.

[Uncle Cracker]

If you cut the roundovers first, there will still be three square sides, which leaves two easy rabbets for a router table or table saw. But you could also cut the rabbets first, leaving a flat face to roundover twice on the router table. Either way presents little trouble. It gets tougher if you dont have a router table.

[Thom2]

use a wider board, roundover I first, then rabbet III and dado IV, rip the strip off and roundover II using a support

JMO

[sparkeyjames]

Do large rabbit first. Small rabbit second then do the routing on a router table. Rotating the piece clock wise (as per your drawing) for the rabbits then route the small round over first then the large round over last. Sand to taste then finish. Doing them in that order will leave you plenty of flat surface on the piece to be in contact with the table/fence for stability while doing the cutting. You will have to do the round overs with the bit inside the fence so don't forget to take off the round over router bits nut and bearing. This also means that vertical alignment of the bit and horizontal alignment of the fence for the router cuts must be precise.

[cabinetman]

I would do III and IV first on the TS with just a blade, not a dado blade. The reason for this is that with a dado blade, there is a lot of pressure from taking out that much material for a small piece and featherboards and holddowns are more apt to be safer with just a single blade doing the cut. Don't forget a push stick.Then I would cut two strips of wood to fit into III and IV as a filler to allow for a bearing to ride on with the router, so that each radius can be set up with flat sides. This routing could be done with a hand router, by cutting a piece of wood the height of the moulding for the other side of the router base to ride on when making each pass, to keep it level.The strips can be held in place with tiny brads, or hot glue.

[Stytooner]

I have made several trim pieces like this. Some were for a floating floor to standard oak flooring. The others were oak flooring to oak parquet flooring.
My first attempts were similar to your drawing. I found that they cracked easy and were easy to trip on. They were also not comfortable if your foot landed on them when walking.
I replaced these with a profile similar to the drawing below.
These have preformed much nicer and the finish has worn better.
It is fairly easy to mill them out as well.

[DaveStL]

I replaced these with a profile similar to the drawing below. These have preformed much nicer and the finish has worn better. It is fairly easy to mill them out as well.

I used a similar profile, "baby threshold", about 15 years ago in the old house-- replaced vinyl tyle in the foyer w/ marble, so the foyer was about 1/2" higher than the oak that butted against it on three sides. Commercially available, worked well. I ran the marble up close enough/the molding was beefy enough that it didn't need a center strip down to the subfloor for support.

[Pappy]

I think Lee offered the best solution. My first thought to your drawing was that profile II is a sure trip hazard.

[Hellrazor]

I agree with Lee too. Profiles for elevation changes need to be very gradual.

[hermit]

Another agreement with Lee, but as for the first profile, I would use a wide board as Thom2 mentioned, however I would rout both roundovers first, then the 2 dados, then rip off the finished piece.

Todd