The ONE Trick they Don’t Teach at Carpenter University

So you're installing some baseboards. You're taking your measurement. You've got a little sample piece of the baseboard that way you can measure to the outside part of the miter to ensure that you get a perfect fit. You also want to check the corner to see how square it is. The angle is slightly acute so you make a note 45 and three quarter inch degrees to cut these pieces. Then you head on to the garage to make the cuts. You've got your pieces cut. No need to test fit. You're a carpentry guru. Of course it's going to fit perfect. Just go ahead and nail those on. That was the last piece of baseboard. We must turn to the dark arts of carpentry to fix this problem. We're going to need to reduce the width of this baseboard at the very end in order for it to meet up with this piece that is about a sixteenth of an inch too short. We're going to need a pencil and a belt sander. So you're going to want to draw a line on top of the baseboard. You want to start it off approximately the distance that you need to make up for the piece that's too short. So I'm going to start it off about a sixteenth of an inch right at the start and then I'm just going to taper it down to nothing over the course of about 12 inches to the garage. Now a belt sander is going to be the best choice here. If you don't have a belt sander you could use hand sandpaper, an orbital sander. It'll just take a lot longer. If you have an angle grinder you could put a sanding disc on there and that works well. Or if you want to get a little crafty and dangerous you can even carve the back of it out with your miter saw. I wouldn't necessarily recommend that. It's a little dangerous. A belt sander is definitely the best way to go here. So I've got this thing all squared away with a belt sander and to make it easier on yourself go ahead and put yourself a little guideline before you start on the bottom edge as well. That way you're not going to get lost with the belt sander. And if you're going to err, err on the side of taking a little more off the bottom edge. This little trick also works great for crown molding if you make a mistake. Let's see how this thing fits.