A Special Picture Frame - WIP

Stuart Ablett

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Back in early >>April of this year << Peter Rideout came for a visit, bearing gifts.....

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...April 4th to be exact, Peter showed up with a bag full of firewood :eek:

At the end of July this year, we lost my cousin Dan after his long hard battle with cancer. Dan was like a little brother to me, we grew from kids to young men together.

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This wood that Peter brought for me, I wanted to do something special with it, as it is from Canada, and from a friend. :thumb:
It sure is pretty, let's hope I don't mess it up :doh:

I decided that I'd make a picture frame from it, the one piece is certainly large enough, in fact, I'll get two out of it, one for Dan's parents, who were like a second set of parents to me growing up, and one for myself.

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I made a total of three prototypes (did I mention that I REALLY did not want to mess this up?) and here is one dry fit into my picture frame jig.

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The nice thing about making a prototype is you can also see for sure that you will have enough wood when you are not working with off the shelf lumber.
I used Big Blue, my resaw bandsaw to slice the wood up, saves a fair bit of wood, as the blade only makes a 1mm kerf.

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After cutting the wood up into the stick I need, I used my LN #62 to smooth the surfaces. I know that my thickness planer would just tear this curly Maple to bits, and besides that I cannot lift it right now from it's hiding place with my healing back. I also love the feeling of that sharp blade slicing off crinkly shavings of wood :D

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I used my Hitachi SCMS to cut the 45s, I sure love that saw, dead accurate :thumb:
Once cut and fit, I used the picture frame jig to glue up the frame.

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Once it was dry, I used my corner key cutting jig to cut keys in the corners..... ;)

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One little tip, a brush does not work so well for putting glue into the small kerfs the keys fit into, but the small wooden spoons we get with ice cream sure do a good job!

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I used some Rosewood that I got from my hunting buddy to make the keys, the contrast should look good.
Now it sits until it is all dry, then I'll get out my flush cut saw and cut the keys off, do some sanding and then finish it. I'm thinking WaterLox should really make the curl pop.

I have the mat cut already, I need to get some glass, and some more backer board.

A question for any out there with more experience with mounting pictures, I want to attach the picture to a backer board made from cardboard, what should I use? I don't want to use tape, it will dry out and flake in a few short years, I would rather use some sort of glue, but I fear it will bleed through the paper and ruin the picture. I printed the picture at the highest setting on our new inkjet printer on very high quality paper, so I hope that picture does not fade too fast.

Thanks again to Peter for bringing the wood, I think I'm putting this chunk to good use.

Comments, questions, observations encouraged :wave:

Cheers!
 
Very, very nice Stu. What a great gift for Dan's parents. I remember you mentioned this when I was there recently.
It's so satisfying to see that stock being put to such a worthy purpose, which I knew it would.

As to attaching the photo to the backer board, I think professional framers actually do use a special tape for that purpose. I'm sure some more experienced framers will comment here shortly.

Meanwhile, you know wood-burning season is almost upon us in Nova Scotia. I'll be keeping a careful lookout for suspicious material when I'm stoking that hungry beast in the basement!:D

All the best
Peter
 
Great project, Stu. I know you'll do justice to this project.

Back when I took photography in high school, we used plain ol' rubber cement to mount photos on thicker stock. The teacher liked it because it was essentially permanent, but could be undone if necessary with careful peeling, and the residue could be cleaned up simply by rubbing it with a dry finger. We used it like contact cement...coat both pieces, let dry until you can press a finger on it without sticking to it, then put the two pieces together. There's probably something newer and faster available, but the rubber cement has held up on the few prints I have from back then. (We're talking way back in the dark ages...before video games, even.)
 
The more I think about it, I don't see why a glue stick wouldn't work.

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The photo is going to be sandwiched between the glass and the mat board. It's not like you're trying to hold it down in the wind. When we were using rubber cement, it was often for unframed prints. The photo paper was relatively thin, and we needed something glued to the back just to keep it from curling. In your case here though with a frame and glass, I don't think you need all that much holding power.
 
Great looking frames Stu! :thumb: Great use and a wonderful tribute to Dan.

Glue stick should work, might check the scrapbooker's supply place for some that is acid free.
 
I got the first coat of WaterLox on it.

Here are some before pics....

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The frame is not curved, that is the camera lens doing that :D

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The WaterLox sure makes it "pop" :thumb:

A couple more coats, then some buffing and it will be ready for glass etc.

I think it will turn out OK :)
 
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