Remove part of baseboard?

[mattswabb]

You could use the profile tool and make a poster board template. Another option if the baseboards are painted and easily fixed is to take an oscillating tool and cut a vertical line thru the length of the base board. Then slip in a piece of posterboard and trace the intersection. Then putty and paint the cut.

[Casey]

The hell of scribing is you usually just get one try, because if you cut too much away, you can't add it back, short of a caulk gun.
If you have a two-part base, where the cap molding is complex, and the rest of it is square lumber, then it may make sense to use an oscillating tool to cut the cap molding, and remove it so only the plain square portion of the baseboard needs to be scribed to. The removed section of cap molding would be tagged and stored in a safe place, and notation made in the "log book" of work you have done (which is passed to the next owner), that way it can be un-done in the future, while you still get the nicest-looking job.

If the cabinet thing is being built in place, or the piece that needs scribing is a separate workpiece, then you can scribe the whole thing with no need to cut the house. If the building of this unit has not yet started, maybe this detail can still be designed in.
Casey

[Gothichome]

Seems to me this getting too complicated, what ever happened to the good old compas. Butt your poster board up to the moulding and just follow the contor. Carefully cut the poster board pattern to the inside of the scribe line. This. Will allow for the cabinet carpenters pencil thickness when he traces your pattern. As mentioned by Casey, if the carpenter trims too deep, that is another whole ball of wax.

[phil]

I can't immagine why this shelf thingy needs to be a watertight fit to the baseboard, I'd just call it paralysis by analysis.

[Casey]

Ahem....because some of us carpenters take pride in our scribe and cope joints...ahem. For paint grade a "playing-card" width gap is ok (caulk & putty) but in stain-grade it has to be airtight, no gaps.
I try to pass along tips & techniques so others can learn to do top-level work, or at the very least understand the steps along the way.
Casey

[phil]

it isn't that I am unable to fit something properly, I could use bluing and fit it so perfectly it is watertight and every part of the baseboard had contact, but sometimes its the context,The original poster is placing a book shelf against the wall not making space shuttle parts

[DavidP]

What they said, listen.
if you decided that wasn't where it was going to live in the future... you've designed yourself into a really bad corner. . . . Something that would have to replicated, I would have an issue removing it.

Modifying the house to fit the furniture seems like turning the room to fit a lightbulb to me.

The bookcase is large (60" wide x 65" tall) and so I would like it to look as "built in" as possible. It is being built for this specific location in the house and will stay there as long as I am in the house. Please recall that my initial idea was to remove the baseboard in one piece so that it could be replaced by subsequent owners if desired. I am working on other options now.

[DavidP]

You could use the profile tool and make a poster board template. Another option if the baseboards are painted and easily fixed is to take an oscillating tool and cut a vertical line thru the length of the base board. Then slip in a piece of posterboard and trace the intersection. Then putty and paint the cut.

Thanks Matt. I have been investigating contour gauges (plastic pins not fine enough, metal pins finer but sometimes fragile, etc.) and finally ordered one. If this does not work well enough I have your method (nice and simple, I may say) as a fallback, since the baseboard is indeed painted.

[DavidP]

If you have a two-part base, where the cap molding is complex, and the rest of it is square lumber, then it may make sense to use an oscillating tool to cut the cap molding, and remove it so only the plain square portion of the baseboard needs to be scribed to. The removed section of cap molding would be tagged and stored in a safe place, and notation made in the "log book"
Casey

Great advice, thanks Casey. Unfortunately there is a cap molding, then a little straight, then a fancy profile, then more straight down to the floor. Like I said, Victorian house. We'll see how I get along with the profile tool I ordered.