Woodworking Frames

[Melissa Hassel]

Forsomething that large, I would want more than just a glue joint holding it together. I would want some sort of mechanical connection between the sides and top/bottom, such as slip tenons, dowels, or mortise and tenon.

Just a bit on the terminology, a true spline runs lengthways in a slot milled into the face of both mitres, through all or most of the joint (a through spline or stopped spline respectively). A different joint reinforcement, where a piece of wood is inserted into one or more slots milled across the corner is now commonly also described as a spline but this is more accurately described as a mitre key. In the video you link to Matthias is using mitre keys, not splines.

The strength of each reinforcement is due to three factors: structural advantage, the thickness of the wood slivers used and the glue surface area. The splined joint being superior in all regards. However, mitre keys were originally quite small and done using veneer thicknesses, resulting in only modest added strength while the keys in the video on the other hand are far larger than conventional ones and also thicker. So they probably add as much, if not more, strength than a typical spline would, being of relatively modest width (25mm / 1" being a typical maximum).

Even saying that, if you would prefer to reinforce the mitres using a method that is faster there are a few I can recommend. And the first two are guaranteed to provide greater stability and strength.

These are L-shaped steel mending plates or plywood corner braces. They are simply screwed or nailed into the frame at the back and essentially make the joint completely rigid.

Last but not least, the simplest reinforcements of all: large staples or corrugated fasteners. If you don't have any philosophical objection to using mechanical fasteners both of these require no effort to install yet add hugely to the strength of the joint, as the metal would have to shear through or be torn free from the wood for them to fail. Some people consider them crude and ugly, but they work and I would argue that their ugliness is irrelevant as they are on the back of the joint where nobody will ever see them.

LeeG's answer is a good one, but I would also say that a well done spline joint would also work, you would just have to make sure the spline goes all the way through the width of the frame not just a little corner of it.

Though on of the things you could do to make either stronger would be to make 'pins' that go through the frame from the front of a different wood, thus giving it more strength AND a nice pretty accent.

In cases where you do not want to damage the outer edge of a decorative frame (Like a nice picture frame) you could do this with a biscuit joiner. I have made many strong frames with a "detail biscuit joiner", a perfect mitered cut and wood glue.

What about adding a grove in your actual frame to allow the mirror to sit closer to the front. Then you could get some sheet material and pin/fasten from the back. Then you would have that additional cohesion of the fasteners all around the mirror.

I needed some new picture frames for my fall mantel, instead of heading to the store, I headed to the garage. In less than an hour, I had 2 rustic picture frames and that included taking pictures to share.

Then draw a 45 degree angled line to intersect that mark. Make sure it is angled toward the groove side of the board. Cut along the angled lines for the frame side piece and repeat so you have 2 sides.

For these, you will want to add one hangers on each side of the picture frame. You can add a wire between them to hang from. Or just place two picture hanging hooks in the walls and hang the D ring directly on them.

Ha ha! My hubby tries to tell me to be more careful, even bought me a kevlar cutting glove. I told him it is just going to keep happening as long as I keep using sharp things (and they are necessary for cooking) so he stopped complaining about me hurting myself! Sorry about your finger though. It's never fun, especially since you cut it doing boring things like dishes.

Hi, I'm Kati! I spent the last 10 years remodeling our home, project-by-project, room-by-room. Now we are tackling our second home, with 5 acres of land to DIY as well! Join us as we share everything we learn, while hoping to inspire you to tackle your own DIYs and creating your dream home on a budget too!

In this final episode, we explore the different techniques that can be used when decorating the picture frames. Paul shows a variety of methods that are used to create a cove, a bead, an inlay and how to cut a moulding using a moulding plane. You can then utilise these techniques to make various picture frames and layer them to create the whatever effect you wish to achieve.

Learn what it takes to make picture frame by hand that have crisp mitres and splined corners. Paul shows how to make everything from a basic frame to a stacked frame using a number of different techniques.

I'm a passionate woodworking enthusiast of over 30 years, with an interest in the methods of pre-industrial joiners and cabinetmakers. I'm a furniture maker, teacher, and author, and I share my thoughts and experiences with the goal of educating and inspiring others who are pursuing the craft of traditional woodworking. In addition to writing about and teaching traditional woodworking, I also build commission pieces for customers, and speak at woodworking shows and seminars.

Then those babies were ready to hang. Cue the angels. Part the clouds. I am in bike art heaven. Oh yes, and ignore the way-too-airy table and chairs. Once we have a chunky storage piece of furniture (we have our minds set on something, so we should have that update for you soon) the bike art will have the nice grounded and proportionate look that it deserves.

Ikea has awesome and inexpensive frames (with great mats which tend to make things look more expensive). We also occasionally check out Target clearances and love finding them at yard sales and thrift stores since those bring the collective cost down a lot.

I've got a fairly easy project laid out for myself, picture frames. Overall these are fairly easy to make, but there's something I want to do that I can't really find any information or examples on how to do.

I'm not entirely sure how to get this done. I think for a frame like this, you'll probably have to negate the 45 degree cut in favour of having the rounded corner, which means you'll have to somehow join the pieces elsewhere. I suppose you could make the rounded corner on the outside easy enough with some handy jigsaw and router work, but will it be just as easy to match the inside?

You could make rounded straight picture frame molding, miter the corners and assemble the frame, then add splines to the corners to strengthen them. Cut the corners roughly round on the bandsaw, or with a coping saw. Then use a router table to round the corners.

or you can add a piece in each corner cut at 22 1/2 deg. to nip the 90 deg. corner off than you can round that off with a jig saw, router with template, scroll saw, band saw(only on the outside corner not sure what tools your dealing with. I'm pretty sure looking at the picture frames in the pictures that's how they a approached it.

If you do round it off after joining the frame, keep in mind that it is not simply a matter of rounding off the inside and outside corners. If you want the entire frame to have a consistent width (and the inside and outside corner to have the same radius), you will need to trim the straight part of the inside as well. When you round off the outside corner, you are taking away material that needs to be made up for somewhere else. It is hard to explain but this article might help illustrate. You can make the inside corner a smaller radius, which will reduce the amount of material you need to remove from the inside straight parts.

The inside radius will be less than the outside radius from the same pivot point, lay it out full sized on a piece of paper that will give you all the information to find widths and lengths of all frame parts.

Mike Haasl wrote:Em suggested exactly what I was going to say. Some scrap 2x2 wood or the like would hold it together nicely. And if you wanted to stack the frames, the chunk of 2x2 could sit lower so that it can index into the frame below it. If that's a need...

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Jay Angler wrote:I've used scraps of sheet metal (either recycled from garbage or small scraps that haven't much potential) to make simple brackets which I've screwed on. Not super strong, but avoids the "end grain" issue.

So if you run out of 2x2 sized stuff but can find free sheet metal, it's an option.

I thought, "Have we really never posted about mixing wood tones?!" And then I remembered my sister asking a similar question to Nisha's when she moved into her very modern Seattle apartment: "All of the wood is blonde," she said. "Do I really have to stick to this?"

Thank you so much for this article and everyone's responses - my spirits have lifted tremendously reading your advice. I'm refurbishing with a mix of inherited (dark tones) and newer furniture and you've given me such good ideas to follow such as warm with warm tones and especially what I'll now think of as the rule of (at least) two of each shade. So helpful - thank you again.

I love all of your post. Your Instagram page is so inspiring and your suggestions are so helpful. I look forward to clicking on instagram and seeing all the new stuff you guys have posted. You guys are awesome and your house is stunning.

This is very helpful! One thing I notice with your example pictures is that almost all of them have metal, wicker or painted furniture/cabinets mixed in with the different wood tones. It seems that adding some different materials and textures can help balance out the wood.

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