Detective work!

Sometimes you have to play at detective to find the cause of a problem. I was going to finish the last baseboard frame today but something just did not look right. Placing it on my slabs which I know are level the frame had a twist. Trying to twist it did not have any affect. one piece or possibly more were not true and straight or one of the joints was at an angle. I discounted the joint possibility as a quick check with a carpenters square showed that my mitre saw had cut all the joints true and at 90 degrees. It was then down to detective work to determine which wood was no true. Literally this was a case of unscrewing everything and then putting it back together and seeing what the effect was as each piece was refastened. Eventually I found that one of the side pieces was twisted. It showed itself at the last joint where a twist of a few mm was enough to affect the rest of the frame. The picture below shows the problem.

Going into WMD stores I found some old timer of the right size and cut a new piece to replace the twisted one. There is still a slight twist in the frame which I now know is due to the other side piece which came from the same length of timber as the other piece. Oh well tomorrow should see another piece cut and everything flat and level. Hope I detect the end of this baseboard project approaching!