Picture Frame for Mom

[Bibliophile 13]

I haven't posted a project here in a long time--mostly because I've just been making pipes and spoons to sell--but today I have a real project to share.

Last year, my mother asked my brother and me to make her a framed sign for her dining room wall.  My brother is visiting over the weekend, so we're working on it together.  I'll be doing the woodworking, and he's going to paint the sign.  But there's a twist.  After mom asked us to do this, my brother suggested that we make the sign reversible, so we can paint a different saying on each side.  The engineering challenge from my perspective is to make a nice-looking picture frame with a sliding insert that can be easily reversed.  

I began with a 4/4 black walnut board that I had stowed away in my lumber pile. 

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I had cut it out myself from a walnut log that came out of my in-laws' back yard some years ago.  It's been drying for several years now, just waiting for a special project to be used on. 


Walnut is a really easy wood to work with hand tools, so I decided that this was going to be an exclusively hand-tool project.


So I decided to rip it down with my trusty Disston 12.  It sailed through that walnut almost unbelievably well, except at one point where the grain had grown around a knot and started to pinch the saw.  A little wedge kept the kerf wide open, and I decided that that end of the board was going to be my offcut.


I planed down each board, first with the jointer and then with the smoother.  Obviously both boards needed to be as close to identical in dimensions as possible. 

Ordinarily, a picture frame would be rabbeted around the back to allow the picture and glass to be let in.  But because this frame will house a sliding insert, I grooved the inside edges instead.


I love using my little plow plane. 

Then it was time to cut the miters. I must admit that miters often scare me.  I've seen so many poorly cut miters in other people's work that I think I've assumed that they're extremely hard to get nice and tight.  Theoretically, of course, cutting a tight miter should be just as easy as cutting a tight dovetail, if not easier.  But knowing that in theory hasn't stopped me from shying away from including mitered corners in my work. 

But miters are the right joint for this kind of project, so I took a deep breath and marked out my cuts. 

Each board was long enough to get two sides out of, so that meant that two corners would be perfectly grain-matched.  The others should be very close, too, since they came out of the same board.  


I marked the miters with a knife and used a wide chisel to cut a channel to guide the saw. I carried my lines down the two edges, too. 



There are two challenges to getting perfect miters.  First, as I said, is making a straight cut at exactly 45*.  The second is getting each opposite piece EXACTLY the same length. 



So once I got two sides cut out, I used them as templates to mark out the other two sides on the second board.

Once each miter was cut, I looked carefully to see if I had sawn exactly to my lines.  I had to trim a couple of my cuts with a handplane, but the rest went together right off the saw.  


Not bad! 


But before gluing it up, I needed to cut out a section of the top of the frame to allow the insert to slide in and out.  I considered several options, but eventually I decided to cut a stopped slot--essentially a very long mortise--into the top. 

And it was at this point that I decided that this was not, after all, going to be an all-hand-tool project.  I know this would normally be router work, but I don't own one.  So took the workpiece down to the drill press and drilled out most of the waste.  


Then I carefully used a few chisels to take out the rest of the waste.  In retrospect, I should have used a Forsner bit instead of a twist bit and overlapped my holes.  It would have saved me time with the chisels. 



Oh well.  The slot is now cut. 

Now for the glue-up.


I remembered the tape trick from all the magazine articles.  It really does work well!


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With plenty of glue applied, I set the frame gently in the clamps.  I found that I had to tighten each clamp very slowly and gently so as not to throw the miters off.  But with a little patience, I got each joint tight. 

So that's the first half of the project.  While the glue on the frame dries, I'll be making the insert panel.

[Alan S]

It looks great so far! Are you planning on feather splines to reinforce the miters?

[Big Dave]

Looking forward to seeing the finished product, Steve!

[JSpill]

Steve nice work as always. I always enjoy your approach to wood working.

[Bibliophile 13]

No, but I am nailing through the miters in each direction. Should be enough to hold everything together. The walnut is dark enough to hide the nail holes.

[Arlin Eastman]

Steve

I love the project and you taking the time to show us.

I have a few questions tho

What is the Tape secret?
What is the thru mortise for?
Last (me trying to think it thru) would it have been easier to put a small dowel in the miters to get it aligned right or is it really really hard to get them even?

[Bibliophile 13]

Steve

I love the project and you taking the time to show us.

I have a few questions tho

What is the Tape secret?
What is the thru mortise for?
Last (me trying to think it thru) would it have been easier to put a small dowel in the miters to get it aligned right or is it really really hard to get them even?

The "tape trick" is as illustrated in the photo.  Once yo cut your miters, you lay the matching ends down on a piece of tape, then when you "fold up" the mitered corners, and the tape keeps the corners exactly aligned.  At least that's how it works in theory.  In reality, any clamping pressure will move them a little, so even clamping pressure is a must.  But the tape really does help keep everything aligned as you put on the clamps.

The through-mortise is to accept a two-sided, reversible panel, which will fill the frame.  Essentially, the frame is single-sided (got to put on hanging hardware), but the insert is double-sided. 

I suppose it might be good to use a dowel to align the mortises.  But you've got to be able to drill the dowel holes dead-on square, and that requires some kind of jig.  Which I don't have. 

Anyhow, I've got it all finished now, but I'll post more pics later.

[BrokenOlMarine]

I have been holding my breath waiting to see the finished project. Can't wait to see the reversible sign choices. 
  The holding the breath thing got to be too much... I got all dizzy and turned blue, and stuff... but - I am still watching this spot. 

[Arlin Eastman]

I thought the tape trick was about the glue joints.  my bad.

On the mortise is it to put in the glass and picture?

[titanxt]

I enjoy your approach as well! Really nice!