Simple project advice

[algale]

As others have pointed out, mitered picture frames are hard to get perfect corners. In addition to a well aligned saw, accurate miters require accurately milled (straight/square) stock. Good luck!

[edflorence]

Hey Karl;

Lots of good advice so far, but I thought I would chime in with something that has not been mentioned yet. The very best and easiest way to get accurate 45's on your miter gauge that I have found is the Miter Set.

https://www.shopsmith.com/product-page/ ... shopsmith

Set the miter gauge with the Miter Set after adding a longer fence to the face of the miter gauge and when making the cut push the miter gauge bar snug against the inside wall of the miter slot.

Having said that, I will also second the recommendation to take a look at the Shopsmith Miter Pro.

https://www.shopsmith.com/product-page/ ... o-assembly

It is a great tool. Be sure to follow the set up instructions that come with it and, as has been mentioned, make sure miter slot is parallel to blade and blade is perpendicular to table. I have used the Miter Pro to make dozens of frames that my wife has used in her art work. In fact, when she asked me a few years back if I could make a bunch of frames for one of her projects, I said "sure, but not without the Miter Pro." So this was a case when I had her blessing to add a tool to the shop!

[kas20amc02]

Hi guys. Thanks for your advice and my apologies for my delay in response. I guess I was making sawdust?!?!?

I ended up making a box out of the lousiest 1x6 you have ever seen for a practice ran. It was reasonably good for a first attempt. I learned a ton such as you MUST pre stain/seal pine to avoid splotchiness and use two band clamps to keep your joints tight while glueing instead of one clamp, which can pull the boards out of square. It lives on my workbench now, holding odds and ends.

I am 99% done with the larger poplar box I made for my daughter. It is both better made and took me less time to make than my first box. I will post a pic tomorrow when I take the clamps off. I wanted to make use a different joint, but to get the dimensions and grain I wanted I had to use a double rabbet corner joint again. I like the look of the wood but was surprised to learn poplar is quite a bit weaker than many hardwoods. It was easy to work with, reasonably priced and locally available, all plusses.

I worked on a dice tower tonight out of pine. It was an easy design and build but tedious, since I don't have a dado blade.

I looked at the SS miter goodies. Those look very helpful. I still want to make a picture frame, and if I can get it to look good, will make some frames for new art for my office. I bought an ornamental router bit for frames, but am a little intimidated by the size of the bit. I don’t want the router to get away from me and I don’t have a router table. I may make an outdoor cedar planter first. (another box! )

Again, many thanks for your help and advice,
Karl

[kas20amc02]

Another pic of my first box

[bainin]

I've done a few picture frames over the years using just the miter gauge which came with my SS.

As others have said, pay particular attention to getting the very closest to a 45deg as you can. For me, this is done in a few steps.


1) Bandsaw alignment (tilt and fence alignment). I use the bandsaw because its fast and i can get the miter gauge close to 45 alignment before transitioning over to the table saw. Call it coarse alignment.

2) Tablesaw alignment (tilt , straightness etc) following SS prescriptions.

3) Make sure you have a trustable 90 degree standard around.

4) Joint/Plane your pieces, including a bunch of "test" pieces

5) Make a pair of test cuts. Put them together, compare to your known 90 standard.

6) Fine adjust miter gauge until happy.


This alone can take a day in the shop-so be patient.


Here's the frame I'm working on currently.

frame2025-2.jpg (89.37 KiB) Viewed 80 times

Heres a closeup of the routed edge .

frame2025-1.jpg (43.26 KiB) Viewed 80 times

As the picture is very thick (1" iir) I am stacking a near 1" thick base frame with simple 45 degree miters. On top of this will be attached my routed "pretty edge" which extends and overlaps the painting itself a little. The pretty piece needs a minor recess to accommodate the painting thickness.


b

[edflorence]

That is a nicely shaped piece of molding. Is it white pine or sugar pine? I would be interested in hearing what the sequence of operations was that you went through to get that shape. Hope you will also post some photos of the end result so we can see how the molding is finished.

[bainin]

Thanks for being interested Ed !

I don't know what type of wood, it was a 2x4 I had in my attic for 2 years. Some kind of pine from HomeDepot.

To make the decorative edge is pretty easy.

I made 2 passes on the tablesaw at the blade width and 3/4 depth (non thru cut). This skimmed the 2 edges creating a tongue.
Then I used a 1/2 Whiteside Cove Bit #1804 on the narrowed edge with an offset to produce a 1/8" step.

I probably should sketch this.