Custom picture frames

These picture frames are for two long time friends of mine. We have all been involved in Tae Kwon Do since January of 2000. Two of us have earned second degree black belt. The other earned first degree. They each have sons that earned first degree. For each degree earned one gets a nice certificate from Korea, but these come in a cheap frame. So, I am making 5 frames for each friend.

Each frame is really an outer frame of cherry and an inner frame of sycamore. The cherry comes from my yard. The sycamore comes from the yard of one of these friends. I cut these trees down myself and have performed all of the milling steps except cutting the tree into rough lumber.

The outer frame has a "shouldered bullnose" and the inner frame has a bevel. The bevel makes it look like a "matte." The frames look pretty because of the design and the contrasting wood colors.

To date all the pieces have been rough cut, milled to size, shaped, rabbeted, mitered to length, and assembled. That was TWENTY frames. Once a particular cut was set up, it wasn't a big deal to do that cut repeatedly, so more frames didn't mean a lot of extra time.

I built a mitering sled for the table saw. This is now an indispensible jig for my workshop. It has runners that fit in the channels of the table saw and a pre-set triangle which creates perfect 45 degree cuts while the tablesaw is set to cut at 90 degrees. One side has a sliding stop block set into a T-track. Using this device I cut all of the "left miters" on one side, one at a time. Then I set the stop block . To set the stop block I cut a piece a little long, test the length, then trim it a little at a time until perfect, moving the block for each test cut. Once it is perfect, the block is set. Finally, I cut all the right miters one at a time.

Pitcures soon.