Frame Tutorial

When I mentioned recently that I make frames a friend asked me how. Because she lives so far away and has a young baby I figured it would be easier to make a tutorial rather than make her come all this way to watch me do it.

I want to start with a caveat. This tutorial should be called something like "Frame making for busy moms who want to make a frame they cannot afford to buy." This is not "Frame making for purists." So if you're the type of person who should probably plant an acorn and wait to harvest the wood to make a frame out of, (and we all know who's husband I'm talking about! ;) ), this is not the tutorial for you!

I started making frames a few years ago. I had wanted to try it for a long time because big frames are so expensive. I finally found the time and asked Russ to teach me what I needed to know. Which was nice because he had made a few frames and figured out some important tricks.

The first frames I made were very basic. I made them of 1" pine and used the router to make the rabbets. (A rabbet is the groove that your picture/mat board/glass sit in.) I wanted these frames to be very simple because they were part of a group of pictures.

From that point I have worked with moulding most of the time. I know that I could make my own moulding with a router, but I don't really have the desire at this point. Lowes has a lot of interesting and inexpensive mouldings that make nice frames.

Here's a piece of moulding that I got to make a new frame for an old bulletin board. As you can see, the moulding isn't thick enough to make a frame out of. (Moulding usually isn't thick enough on it's own.)

Because of this I cut some base pieces for my frame. I use pine or whatever is laying around the garage.

I cut these base pieces between 1/4" and 3/8" narrower than the moulding. Then I spread wood glue on the base piece and clamp the moulding to it, making sure that the outside edge of the moulding and the base edge are even. (Small clamps are great gifts for Father's Day, Christmas, birthdays, etc. If you're going to make frames out of moulding, your husband really can't have too many clamps!)

Here is a picture of the underside — the edge of the base piece is even with the edge of the moulding, and this leaves a 1/4 to 3/8" groove called a rabbet.

Here is some wood that is already glued up to make a frame for one of Cindy Lynn's wedding pictures.

These pieces are actually made of 4 separate pieces--a wide moulding, a narrow moulding, a base for the narrow moulding to make it the height that I want it, and a base for everything.

After your moulding and base wood are glued together you are ready to make the frame. I use a nifty little tool called a compound miter saw. Russ had a boss a long time ago that went through a phase where instead of giving money for a bonus he gave tools or other things. The philosophy was that the money would be gone soon, but every time the tool was used it would create warm fuzzy feelings about work and the boss. And so every time I use the miter saw I send out vibes of thanks to Pat. He was right!

Set the angle on the miter saw to make a 45 degree cut.

Then make the first angled cut on your wood. It's important to ALWAYS remember what direction your miter cuts should be. Because if you're not paying attention you can end up putting your frame together only to see that the rabbet groove is on the outside instead of the inside!

Just remember--the rabbets should be on the short side after you've cut, and the outside of the frame is the long side.

The actual (outside) frame measurement is not the measurement that is important. The important measurement is that groove, because that's where your picture is going to go. So if you're making a frame for an 8" x 10" picture, you will want to measure in that groove.

Then you will need to set your wood on the miter saw so that you will cut along that line. For some cuts it's hard to judge just where the blade will come down with relation to that mark. Russ does some fancy stuff with an angled ruler to get his mark in a better place. For me it's easier to cut a little wide the first time, and then cut closer until I've cut in the right place.

Because they are angled, each section of frame requires two cuts. The last cut of the previous piece is not the first cut of the next piece! Instead you must cut the first angle for the next piece and throw away the wood from between those cuts because the angle will be wrong. I hope this diagram shows what I'm talking about.

One of the really important tricks that Russ discovered is that when you're using a tool like a compound miter saw to make your frames, it's important that you don't make your cuts by swinging the blade back and forth between the left 45 degree angle and the right 45 degree angle. It would certainly be easier to do it that way, but the compound miter saw (at least ours) isn't precise enough that those angles will match up well when you put the frame together.

Instead, we make all of our cuts with the same angle. This is possible, and I'm sure that figuring it out will help keep your brain sharp and delay the onset of Alzheimers.

Let's say I'm using the left hand 45 angle like this pictures shows.

I start by cutting my first angle with the moulding up, rabbet all of the way in against the fence. (The metal part you hold the wood against as you cut.)

After I measure & mark how long I need my piece to be, it's helpful to me to draw a rough line showing me how the next angle should go. I'm much less likely to cut it wrong if I've marked it that way.

Next I flip the piece of wood upside down (not end to end--just roll it upside down so that the moulding side is down) and it is ready to cut again. The rabbet is now on the outside and the outside edge is against the fence. This is pretty complicated and I had to get a piece of paper just now to make sure I was explaining it right. That's why its' a good idea to draw the lines in so that you can be sure you're cutting the right angles.

When you're cutting with the moulding side is down, if the moulding isn't really flat it can be unstable. I've found that it helps to insert a narrow strip of wood under the moulding to steady it as I cut.

Before you cut your 2nd piece you need to think for a minute. If you are making a good size frame and using more than one 8 foot length of moulding, does it matter how you cut your pieces? Sometimes you'll need to cut one long length and one short length out of each board, because 8 feet won't be long enough to cut two long lengths.

Let's say you've just cut one of the long sides of your frame and you're ready to cut the other long side. Make your first cut so that your angles are right again. Then use your already cut piece so that you get your pieces exactly the same. This would be a good picture of that, except that I was paying a little too much attention to the camera and not enough attention to what I was doing. When you cut a second piece like this, using the first piece as your guide, the rabbets will be facing each other and the moulding will be on the outside of both pieces instead of stacked the way you see them here.

Once you have all four of your frame pieces cut you're ready to put away the saws and get out your next tool---the brad nailer or nail gun and it's sidekick the air compressor.



I use a left-over piece of the frame base to help put together my frames. Since it is the same thickness as the frame base, it will help hold the pieces up while I nail them together. I put glue along one mitered edge, lay the rabbet edge of the long frame piece over the long edge of the left-over wood, then lay the rabbet edge of my short frame piece over the short edge of the leftover wood. I align the angles as well as possible and then shoot in 2 brad nails, trying to be sure to nail through the frame base and not the moulding.

After all 4 miters are nailed together I go back around and put in a nail or two on the sides that didn't get nailed the first time. Then I put a strap frame clamp around the whole thing and tighten it up. This step isn't absolutely necessary, but I am always surprised at how much it tightens the frame.

After the frame is all dry it's time for the cosmetic stuff. Hopefully all of your nails are all countersunk and not sticking out. Sand the outside edges of the frame with a good orbital sander. Then fill the nail holes and any other cracks. I have decided that I prefer making painted frames because they're so much more forgiving. If you're making a stained frame you have to work with wood putty in your holes. But if you're painting it, you can use spackle and that's just easy to work with. Slap some in there, let it dry and sand it off. When everything is sanded prime the outside of the frame, then paint it.

I use picture wire and picture hangers on all of my frames. Screw in the hangers about 1/3 of the way down from the top. When you attach the wire it should be almost tight --if there's much slack then your picture will hang down too low and show your wire.

Use glaziers points to hold your picture in the frame. They are very easy to stick in all around the frame. (At least they are easy with pine--oak is a different story!)

Here's my finished bulletin board frame. And just in case you're wondering why I put an old & stained bulletin board into a new frame, I want you to know I debated that question the whole time I was making the frame.

In the end I decided that I already owned the old bulletin board, and that I was sure that the stains would be covered in no time.

I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. The moulding was very inexpensive, the frame base was some scrap that we already had in the garage, and the old bulletin board was just sitting around the house. Now I have a nice looking new bulletin board to go above my desk!