Making your own Frames (My method)

[Jediscroller]

[Minnesota scroller]

Thank you, thank you, thank you Kevin. I am definitely going to save this tutorial for future use. It's too danged cold out now to even look at my miter and table saw. I appreciate you taking the time to share your methods. It's tidbits like this that make a good forum a great forum.

[workin for wood]

When I build my frames I rip them about 1/4 inch over wide. I joint one edge square and then place them all on edge at the same time, jointed side down and run them through the planer. This guarantees the exact same width on all boards and leaves them with no saw marks and needing very little sanding, but don't sand any edges before assembly.
I usually add biscuits to my miters, which not only adds to strength, but helps keep the top and bottom edges lined up. I clamp from corner to corner with home made cawls. Basically a board about 6 inches long with a V cut into it, the v is 90 degrees. you put a clamp over the caul from one corner to the opposite diagonal corner and clamp it just tight enough for the clamp to not fall off, then do the same with the other side. I'm using trigger clamps and the trigger ends are both on the same side of the frame. I then slowly squeeze both clamps at the same time which pulls the joints tight together. Then check for square, which normally it will be, but you can never be too sure. Otherwise, I do the same thing kevin does, dado first then decorations on the top. I do most of my frame design on the table saw though, not with a router. I also use the titebond II Extend because you want a strong glue that doesn't set too fast.

You can make great designs with just a regular sawblade on a tablesaw. You can do bevels, make your frame stock like an octagon, you can cut large coves, or small grooves, even do V notches and raised panel designs.

Be sure and clamp those boards down before mitering them with a chop saw or tablesaw. The slightest movement or deflection ruins your joint. I set my chop saw and cut the first mitre on each board, then I measure out the length and clamp a stopper board there. This keeps both your frame pieces the exact same length, but still use clamps to hold down the boards before cutting.

Be sure and remove any tearout as well, no matter how small it may be. The smallest nerdly of a sliver can also ruin your joints. It's unbelieveable how many factors are actually involved in making a perfect frame, there's many steps to take which makes the risk for error pretty darn high.

I'd like to add a jointer to the list of tools. Edges need to be square and no twist or warpage can be acceptable, or the frame will be warped or twisted.

[workin for wood]

Half indian blanket

This is such a great topic kevin brought up. Here's another option of table saw art, which is technically call table saw intarsia ! It is not just impressive, but super simple to make. This is a half indian blanket..if another half was glued to it so that it was sort of a diamond shape, it would be a full indian blanket. All you do is cut a two boards with a 45 on one end. Then you take another board, exact same width and cut two 45's on it so that it's a triangle. you end glue the three pieces into a single board. Rip a scrap board of the same thickness and length as your frame piece to be 3 inches wide. set your rip fence at 3 1/8 inches wide. Tape your frame board to the safety board and let er rip, then re-tape and do it again until you have several 1/8 wide boards. Flip every board over and re-glue them all together. Use your planer to clean it up and now you have a cool design in your frame stock. If you perform this technique once, you have a half blanket, if you do it twice and glue them both together you have the full blanket!

[MikeDingas]

Very nice how-to's guys. Thanks for sharing. I'm saving both ideas.

[Mick Walker]

[Stan]

[Minnesota scroller]

Good info and photos, Stan. But, what the heck is a biscuit? Please, no smart aleck answers here. Also, explain a spline, please.

[Paul S WI]

Very good info on frame making guys. I will also be saving this info as a guide.

I have made a few frames recently and have an order for another at 15 3/4" x 36" for a poster. Just this past week I purchased a disc sander for the purpose of touching up miter joints. Between miter cuts and clue up in cheap store bought jugs I always seem to come up with a gap here and there. I have been considering make a jig like the one Stan posted as the store bought models don't work well.

Stan - if you don't mind I think I'll copy your jig. I am wondering about the clamps you have at opposite corners. What are they there for? A TS miter jig is on my list of 'definitely must do'. Though your MS jig is something I never thought of and may have to give some consideration to. Thanks for posted the pics.

[Stan]

Good info and photos, Stan. But, what the heck is a biscuit? Please, no smart aleck answers here. Also, explain a spline, please.

Mike,
Biscuits are basically small oval shaped wooden pieces that are coated with glue and inserted into crescent shaped holes bored with a biscuit joiner. Although primarily used for alignment of two boards, the do give some strength to miter joints.

A spline is just joining two pieces that have a slot cut into them and a wooden spline that is sized to fit into the slot. (See the second picture in my previous post -- splines are glued in but not yet trimmed).

For the splines in the frame, I glue-up the entire frame first, and then use a jig on the table saw to cut the spline slot as shown below.



Hope that helps...

[Stan]