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Simple Picture Frames

Frames are a fairly easy and useful woodworking project, it is a good project to justify spending time and money on woodworking to your spouse. Commonly the mitre joint is used to join the frame corners and a router used to create the groove for the picture or the thing that you are framing to fit into. The frame is usually joined using glue commonly PVA type glue. Staples can also be used to make the corners more secure as well. Mitre joints can a bit tricky to get completely correct, so I chose the much simpler way of using a lap joint. I also used mitre half lap joints on one frame, which is good way to gain practice doing mitre joints but is easier to correct as if the mitre half lap joint is not perfect there is still the overlap to create a joint and you can just fill any remaining gap on the mitre side.

1. The first step to making your frame is to source your wood. I used a couple of pine wood strips measuring 1000mm x 25mm x 14mm which I bought in a local DIY store for some of my frames others I used some scrap wood from my garage scrap pile. I also used some wood strips that was used to support the polysther padding that came with a new washing machine.



2. The next step would be to determine the lengths of each frame member need to be cut to. So I intially measured the picture (that I want to frame) which was 320mm x 525mm and then added 1 width of the pine strip to the length that I need each frame member to be. So I would need 2 frame members at 320mm + 25mm = 345mm, and the other 2 frame members at 525mm + 25mm = 550mm. This should mean you would need a groove width about half the width of each frame member (same as the pine strip), which I choose to give me a good margin of error however, if you want to use a narrower groove you need to cut each frame member longer and vice versa for a wider groove you need to make each frame member shorter. I think this same technique can be used to determine the frame member lengths for a frame with mitre joints as well as one with lap joints.



3. So now you know what length your frames need to be use a pencil, ruler and square to mark where you want cut. The ideal saw to use to do the cutting is a tenon saw, ideally using a vice to secure your work piece as well as a saw guide to ensure you cut a straight line. I did not use a tenon saw instead using a trim saw which can flex more because it does not the spline like a tenon saw, possibly resulting in a cut that is not completely straight and needs to be sanded or filed which I needed to do. I also did not use a saw guide which would also reduce the amount of tidying up work needed. A saw guide is definitely needed if you are using a saw that can flex in order to get a nice clean cut.





4. Cut frame members to size based on the dimensions you worked out in step 2, in some cases where I could not find strips of wood that was long enough I used an additional lap joints to join shorter strips together to give strips of the correct length needed for the individual frame members. So can use the same lap joint to join the frame inline or perpendicular (corner joint or at right angles). There are probably other joints you could use such as dovetail for joining strips of wood together, I might try that another time. Joining bits of scrap wood together is good way practice different woodworking joints while creating something useful.





5. The first step to creating the lap joints is to remove wood from each end of each frame that is square which is equivalent to the width of the frame member and half way through the thickness of the frame member. I always remove the wood from the same side of each frame member which leaves less of chance of you making error and ending up with mismatching frame members



6. If you decide to use mitre half lap joints the first frame member will need the same wood removed as with the normal lap joint and then after that you remove the section for the mitre joint which is a triangular cut.

7. The second stage of the mitre lap joint requires only a triangular section of wood to be removed from second frame member which you intend to join to the first frame member, however a mitre lap joint can be confused than just a lap joint, so I had a lot of repair work having cut the wrong sections. So for my other frames I just used standard lap joint as I was in hurry. Better to master the standard lap joints first, then try mitre half lap joints and then finally try a mitre joint.





8. Tidy up the joints up using sand paper, file and chisels.

9. The last stage for all the joints is the same glue and clamp, after the glue dryed I also used staple gun on each joint for more security. Pictures below show the staple gun, finished corner lap joint front and back, corner mitre lap joint front and back











10. Once you have the frame assembled you need to create a groove to fit the picture, glass, etc into frame. The best and fastest way to this is to use a woodworking router. I used a hand held router to create the groove in my frames after joining the frame members together and they were not the tidiest groove, so a neater way to way to do it would be to use a router table. If you are using a router table you have to make the groove in each frame member before joining them. I do not have a router table again do to lack of space, workshop, etc and afterall the back of your frame is not on display so it is not really that important if it is a bit messy. I may consider building myself a router table as a later project, if you check out the Popular Woodworking Magazine they often do articles and videos on building router tables for a hand held router. A router can be dangerous like all power tools, but with the router make sure you are cutting in direction specified in the instructions, some routers have the direction specified on their casing. The Woodworking Guild of America does some good videos showing you how to use a router safely recommended watching before you use one for the first time. As with powertools they are noisy, can throw out scrapnel and the router is particularly dusty, so its recommended to wear ear protection, eye protection and dust protection!







11. I used perspex clear acrylic plastic sheets and not glass in my frame, perspex sheet may be more expensive than glass, I not really sure why a lot of commerical picture frames that you buy use glass instead of perspex, I personally cannot see the difference between them and perspex is less likely to shatter if you drop it, its also safer if you have young children and there is a possibly of them falling on your picture, not likely as pictures are usually wall mounted quite high up for young children. So my perspex sheet was reasonably thick so used a saw to cut it to size, and marked it with a permanent marker before hand however, perspex sheets can be bought in standard sizes, such as A3, A4, A5, etc, though I recommend buying your perspex sheet and sizing the frame around it which will save the trouble of cutting the perspex down to size. As long the size is larger the picture or photo you want to frame you could then use a cardboard border around it.

12. Picture fixtures for holding picture and glass in frame come in a variety types, some you need to do of extra woodworking such as make an additional groove using a router. I decided to go a further straightforward style as shown below, which you simply screw into the frame. You can also bend them slightly inwards to keep the picture, etc more securely in the frame. Probably better to choose something simple intially until you get some more experience of woodworking. I got my type just searching on Amazon.



13. Picture fixtures for holding the frame on wall also come in number shapes and sizes. I intially used the type that is a screw in loop style which you have to put one on the left frame member and one the right frame and then use a piece of string through each tie it on a closed loop. I then decided to try another possibly more simple type which is described as sawtooth hanging fixture which screw into the top frame member you can also find them on Amazon. They both have there advantages and disadvantages, I personally prefer the sawtooth type but you have to make sure nail is fairly close into the wall to use this type. They can also be a bit tricky to find the nail when your hanging them. The string type requires you to use the correct string length and make sure you install the loop screws nearer the top frame but not too near or else you will get all sort of problems such as the frame swinging out a lot at the top or the frame hanging from the string below the wall nail.

Picture frame is fairly easy woodworking project that does not require loads of wood or tools and can give a lot practice making different joints, so allows you to build your woodworking skills starting with simple joints, etc and then trying more elborate woodworking techniques. You can also try out other joints if you want join scrap wood strip together as I did in some of my frames to create the frame member sizes you need. So a good way use up scrap wood while perfecting your woodworking skills. In the example above I kept the frames of a plain square section however, with more experience using a wood router and possibly a router table you could produce some very fancy frames with various different section styles. In woodworking reference [1] there is project building a frame for a mirror but you could just as easy use the frame for anything, its more conventional in that its using mitre joints so requiring a bit more woodworking experience, reference [1] can be bought on Amazon. The Woodworking Guild of America offers a lot of free downloads if you sign up with your email including a downloadable PDF joint guide, as well as a no mitre picture frame downloadable PDF guide (using slightly more elaborate woodworking skills than my frames), as well as free instructional videos, you get entire video courses if you join as paying member I personnelly never have enough time to watch their free videos, but if I had more time I would certainly join. Building a router table could become a another woodworking side project to perfect you woodworking skills and allow you to make more fancy pictures more accurately, Popular Woodworking Magazine has a free video on building a bench top router table, I think its free though I have not had time to watch it yet, but a router table is certainly a woodworking project I would like to try in the future.

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