Completed Frame
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17 December 2014 at 10:08 am #122232
Hello all,thought I would share my second completed frame,as the first one was,while satisfactory, was pretty boring as just the same square frame Paul made in the classes. This one has a bead run with my Stanley 45 and to me is much more appealing. Word to the wise, if you do this ensure the top of the bead sits a bit below the rest of the piece, so if you have to plane the face of the frame to remove any uneveness at the miter you won’t remove the top of the bead as well. Don’t ask me how I know this 🙂 However if one were to make this mistake, apropos of nothing whatever, it is easily fixed with sandpaper to restore the round 🙂
This one is off in the mail tomorrow as a Christmas gift for the couple on the right, as a memento of the day this last October that the beautiful woman on the left foolishly agreed to marry the chump on the left who shall remain unnamed 🙂
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You must be logged in to view attached files.17 December 2014 at 5:35 pm #122264They are glazier points. I have no idea if they are installed correctly,but seem to hold 🙂
17 December 2014 at 5:43 pm #122265Nicely done. The joints look tight. I was wondering how easy it is to cut the spline pieces so thin and then how easy it is to get them fully seated in the kerf. Any comment?
17 December 2014 at 7:41 pm #122271@mattmcgrane
Matt,It isn’t difficult, but I will share what I found. First…I’m not skillful enough to cut the splines individually with a tenon saw yet (tried and failed miserably :)). I have tried a few different techniques but the one below worked the best for me.
Start with a piece of spline material that is about an inch and a half thick by at least a foot long. Preferably longer. This will make sense in a minute. Plane the faces and one edge nice smooth, make sure the edge is straight.
Using a handsaw (not a back saw) cut a slice from the straight edge. I eyeballed it but you could use a marking gauge. The thicker material makes it easier to see that you are parallel to the edge. Make it too thick (like a 16th of an inch), we’ll plane it down later (much easier to control than the saw). The idea is to get a piece that is wide enough for two wedges with room to spare and long enough to get several pairs from the length. I found it more accurate to saw at an angle in the vise and flip the board around every couple of inches to make sure I was on track on both sides, but that is not strictly necessary.
Clamp the slice flat to your bench by one corner. Then use a smoothing plane to thickness the end away from the clamp. Swap ends and repeat. Having a wide slice and the longer the better makes it easier to register the plane and get a good finish and the correct size which you’ll have to experiment for, trying the spline into the kerf as you go. Split the slice in half into two lengths (I laid it flat on a piece of scrap and used a wide chisel), and snap them to length. Approximately 2″ long was about right, you need room on the ends to grip to “waggle” them into place. Then taper one side as shown in the videos.
Another note, I used a Veritas Dovetail saw to cut the kerfs. It has a very thin plate (0.020″ I believe) which obviously requires very thin and fragile wedges. On the next ones I am going to try using a saw with a thicker plate.
22 December 2014 at 6:15 am #122464Finished two more tonight, but they are identical to the first so didn’t see the point of new pictures. Am I really the only one who has tackled this project? That doesn’t seem right, anyone else have a completed frame they’d like to share?
23 December 2014 at 12:43 am #122518I’ve made a few frames and they’re getting better. After a few failures I decided to make the Paul Sellers shooting board and spend a fair time getting the 45degree part exactly right. Once you have the angles right just make sure the opposite sides are exactly the same and that’s all there is to it
23 December 2014 at 12:50 am #122519I lost the end of my last post – after that’s all there is to it had a few exclamation marks!!!
I use a band clamp to hold the frame during glue-up and put the splines in after everything is dry. Is that the right way? I know Paul does it differently but I couldn’t get that to work.
I like the bead you have on your frame @dmr400. I have a Stanley 50 and am going to experiment with that for beads. It’d be interesting to find out more about simple decorations for frames.
@billstennett I glue my frames first, band clamp them and then add the splines. I,ve also found , tight miters on small frames (4×6) are really strong.
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