cutting mitres for picture framing

[monkeybiter]

100% agree, or a full replacement if possible.

 

[MusicMan]

I cant justify the purchase of a Morso or similar, no space and little funds.

You might be able to afford a mitre jack, though. I got this old one for about £30.

You could make one for the cost of the screw, easily available new or via a boot sales (old vice). A wooden screw is nice but not essential. Plenty of designs online, see an early design on The Cornish Workshop web page.

The beauty of this is that if you set the work up sitting snugly in the clamp, it cuts a very accurate 45 degrees using plane or chisel (if it is accurately made, of course). But you can shim either end to adjust the angle precisely. Here I am using it to fine tune the mitre for beading that is going on a Georgian bureau restoration. Slightly uneven shrinkage over 250 years had made one corner 89 degrees rather than 90. I cut the first bead at 45 degrees and am adjusting the second to fit, using a low-angle Quangsheng plane in this case. The bureau has moved out of the workshop now, so the mitre jack fits conveniently in a Workmate near its location.

Thanks to Cornish Woodworker (ALF, formerly of this forum and much missed) and Steve Maskery in one of his excellent videos, for pointing out the usefulness of this lesser-known tool.

Keith

 

[monkeybiter]

Musicman doesn't use of the plane cut into the reference face? Or do you just use short strokes and limit the damage?

 

[MusicMan]

Musicman doesn't use of the plane cut into the reference face? Or do you just use short strokes and limit the damage?

The latter, also skewing the plane so that not much blade goes over the faces. Might need refacing sometime but nowhere near that yet. The reference face is very large and the blade doesn't go near most of it.

Keith

 

[wallace]

I got this little beauty, Mmm Wadkin

 

[MusicMan]

Gloater!!!!

 

[bugbear]

Musicman doesn't use of the plane cut into the reference face? Or do you just use short strokes and limit the damage?

The latter, also skewing the plane so that not much blade goes over the faces. Might need refacing sometime but nowhere near that yet. The reference face is very large and the blade doesn't go near most of it.

Keith

IIRC it was usual to face the working surface with cardboard. When the inevitable happened - new cardboard!

BugBear

 

[MusicMan]

Thanks for the reminder, BB, quite right.

 

[skeetstar]

long time coming, but I have a solution. Last summer when he was turning up an Oak handle for me for an old Yankee screwdriver, Musicman showed me his veritas shooting board plane. Instant envy. Having a bad back convinced me that the Series 2 (that pinnacle of British off road engineering) had to go and Some of the proceeds went towards a Veritas plane. With great care I made a shooting board and I am delighted with the results. I use the board/plane etc for squaring up all sorts of bits and pieces, not just mitres.
The attached shows my old S2 and the second snap shows close up of a mitre - I made a quick mirror frame out of scrap to test the joints. I wasn't planning to use it, but the joints are so good that I decided to keep it.

 

[peter-harrison]

Transatlantic's way is what I use. To explain it, the two guides are at exactly 90 degrees, and are as near to 45 degrees to the fence of the saw as you can get them. If you always cut the frame sections the same way up, each joint will have one piece cut against the left guide, and one against the right. As the angle the guides are at is 90, so will the finished joint be. This also allows for the saw not being truly upright, as the two mistakes cancel out.

 

[paulrockliffe]

I'm glad you did it that way and got a good result.

I just read the thread and was going to reply to say that I've made one picture frame in my life, I'm a relative amateur and it's hung on the kitchen wall and is absolutely perfect. I made it with a shooting board and a plane, once I understood what was needed it was very easy. You certainly don't need to either farm the job out or spend loads of money on specialist kit.

I made a shooting board at 90 degrees, set bang on with a very good square. I then used the square ruler-removed to give me an exact 45 degrees angle and clamped a straight board to turn a normal shooting board into a mitre board. I cut the frame lengths long on the SCMS and finished them on the shooting board, just checked the first one was bang on 45 degrees, then shot the other end, then worked the opposite side and shot the last corner of the pair to match the lengths.

I then planed a bevel onto the front face and even that meets perfectly, I'd definitely do them again in future as it's a good way to use off-cuts.