Making picture frames

Making your own picture frames adds that little extra touch to presenting your work. Not only can you custom make them to size, you can also make unique shapes and sizes to suit your photos as well as stain.

It is relatively simple, I used a table saw and miter saw to cut the rebates and 45 degree angles, string to clamp them and external biscuits instead of nails. To make the cuts for the biscuit joints, I made a jig which holds the frame at 45 degrees to the table saw blade and cut strips of hard wood 1/8th thick (the width of the table saw blade), which I then glued into the cut.

Finish touches, cutting strips of mat board to space the photos from the Plexiglas.

Finishing off the frames, graining the wood before staining.

Sanding off the biscuit joints and graining the wood.

 Biscuits in place, waiting for the glue to dry before cutting them flush.

Stack the frames as they are clamped and waiting to dry.

Traditional way of clamping using string and blocks of wood.

Cutting and squaring up my angles, crucial to get a nice tight joint. I also scraped them with scrapers.