Picture Frame for Mom

[Bibliophile 13]

I finally have a few spare minutes to catch everybody up on this project.

Once the glue was dry, I did end up putting a couple nails through each miter, just to hold everything steady.



I used a few cut headless brads, which hold pretty securely.  I'm not sure they were necessary, as these joints seem pretty strong.  But I like the extra insurance. And the heads are pretty hard to see in the dark walnut grain.

After planing the face of the frame down flush, the miters appear to be pretty tight.

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This is the least tight of the four joints.  So I'm pretty happy with my work.

Now about that panel.

To begin with, I glued up an oversize pine panel out of some 5" wide boards.  The whole panel ended up being just over 11" wide, but I used 3 boards (well, one 5" wide board cut into three sections) so I could select the clearest part for the panel.  The stock I used had been rough-sawn to 3/4", but after six or eight years in the lumber rack, it had shrunk down to about 5/8" thick. 



It still took a lot of work with the jack plane to dress it down to the required 1/4". 

Yes, I could have just used plywood, but I didn't have any 1/4" ply on hand that was in good enough shape for this project, so I opted for a solid panel. 

After taking about equal amounts off of both sides, I was ready to true up the surface with the jointer plane, and then smooth it down with the the smoothing plane.




The panel will probably be painted white, as the SYP grain would be kind of a distracting background for lettering. 

I sawed the panel just oversize, both in length and width.



The final trimming to width was done with a drawknife.  It's faster than a plane and just about as accurate as a rip saw.  The edge will go into a 1/4" deep groove anyway, so there's no need for a perfectly smooth surface on the edge.

I don't usually think of my drawknife as a joinery tool, but every once in a while it proves itself useful on these kinds of projects.




After a bit of trimming, the panel slides right in from the top. 



A couple screws and a bit of wire on the back will make the frame hang-able.  In the upper-left corner, you can see where I marked the mating pieces with Roman numerals.

Finally, I put a coat of Danish oil on the frame.  The panel is unfinished because, as I said, the plan is to paint it.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/283TkZW]

So that's as far as we've gotten.  I'm the woodworking guy in the family; other people are the artists.  My brother took it home with him to paint the letters. 

Once he finishes, I'll post a couple more pictures of the finished project.

So, as they used to say on TV...

TO BE CONTINUED!

[Arlin Eastman]

I really like it.

[Bibliophile 13]

Update time!

The inserted panel has been painted, and the lettering is done.  Here's how it came out:





That's what my mother requested be on the sign. 

But, my brothers and I being what we are, we are putting a surprise on the reverse side.




That may or may not be something we heard with some frequency while we were growing up....

[Bill Holt]

You boys done real gooooood!!!!!

[BrokenOlMarine]

Outstanding.... great job guys.