Workers Of Wood

Frame from cherry scraps, stained, glazed and finished to match furniture in target room. Matted and framed print of Cinci Reds stadium.

That's a beautiful color...and that it is thin really makes it stand out just right...!

Very nice.

Nice job ,Kieth.
HErb

How did you join the corners?

I took a class in framing years ago. late 1990s. Unlike woodworkers who will tell you anything you want to know, picture framers can be very secretive. Even one supplier here in town won't sell to you unless you have a storefront and do $25K in business with them annually. I learned if you look at a job and the first thing you notice is the frame and not the artwork, you've done it wrong.

I got most of my tools from https://www.unitedmfrs.com/ The vise, mat cutter, ATG, point setter, and various supplies like blades and hangers. I figure that I broke even between the second and third framing work. I think I've done close to 200 frames, most of which I have made the frame stock. I think the smallest was 3"x5" and the largest 5'x7' with compound miter corners for an artist.

I can get mat board at the art supply stores in town. Common mat goes for about $12 for a 32x40 sheet. I went to one place and they quoted me $110, that must have been their price for a mat that was cut (takes less than 5 minutes). And if you do one that big, you have a big piece left over from the cutout that you can use for a smaller mount.

Anyway, I have a framing vise and put two pieces in, drill pilot holes and put in brads. Pneumatic brads can divert. I also use Quick and Thick glue that is very good for miter and end grain joints.

My wife bought a couple of prints at a fair and wanted them framed, roughly around 20" wide by 24" long I'd guess without measuring them again. The moldings were about $25 per foot so each frame was going to be about $200 plus. Plus the matting and glass, which I did get them to do. While looking at the two moldings we liked I realized that they were just a collection of simple curves that I could reproduce with multiple passes. I had rigged up a horizontal router just prior to this and that proved essential for the job. An overhead mount would have worked too.

I made the frames out of white birch which was too white to look good with either print so I used some SamaN wood stain and colored each frame to compliment the general color theme of the prints and I think that turned out well too. I've seen numerous cases where the color of a frame clashed with the photo, print, or painting.

Some other hand tools:
Mat cutter, while you can do with just the cutting head and a straightedge, this makes it easier Point driver, works like a stapler, but horizontal and not vertical. Can also get shorter points for securing glass in windows and doors. Only a couple dollars more expensive that a doo-dad that squeezes in a point or brad
ATG (adhesive transfer gun) instead of a "double sided tape" it just lays down a strip of adhesive. To layer mat board and attach dust cover on the back Pull the trigger and roll on the adhesive, release and move the gun and the adhesive breaks and ends the trail

Slick...!

Thanks for the info. I have for several years been intending to set up to do some framing. We have a backlog of photographs and artwork to put on the walls.

As for the framing vise: How many do you need to work efficiently? Do you do just one corner at a time? Do you need two? Four?

Thanks,

Alex

Alex wrote: ↑Wed Dec 09, 2020 10:07 pm
As for the framing vise: How many do you need to work efficiently? Do you do just one corner at a time? Do you need two? Four?

Thanks,

Alex

One. I do "Long on the Left" to put opposing corners together. Then take the two halves and do the remaining corners. I have a corner made from scrap wood to support the corner not in the vise.

For a very short time I got to play a little with a Pistorius professional frame machine that would cut the miters and then drive spring clips into the joint. The clips were supposed to pull the joint together and you could set the machine to drive 1,2, or 3 clips at a time. They definitely held the corner together and I never had them split the wood. I thought that Lee Valley sold the clips and a driver you hit with a hammer I think at one time. Not sure if they still do. Have you ever tried those Keith?

No, I've never tried the clips. Much of my molding is not flat on the front, so I'm not sure how it would work without a machine to bang in the bottom.

I visited a supplier once and they showed me what they did. If you buy "chops" (the name for pre-cut molding) they put it in a machine and a router cut a dovetail shaped cutout in the back. Then they had little bow-tie inserts that you simply pushed in. I had a couple of customers in a "design center" one of which was a custom framer. I don't think she cut her own frames at all, based on her work space.