Miter saws and mouldings
There is something to be said about learning everything out of books and internet...It is a slower process than taking classes but I believe you will learn much more detail in the trial and error method. You will certainly not be skipping over some very important information that you will eventually have to learn even if you take classes. So I started with hand miter saws. My first one was the plastic Stanley made product. It works but not well enough. Then I bought the Jorgensen miter saw system. They really look good but they do not cut precisely enough to make a good frame. I returned my first one and got another...the second saw was not better than the first. Then I got another miter saw through Sears I believe. It was just like the Jorgensen and didn't work. I finally spent a few more dollars on the Nobex Proman miter saw made in Sweden. This saw works. I was happy enough with this saw that I also bought it's bigger brother the Nobex Champion saw. Now I had the double hand miter saw system. But having good saws is not enough...you need an accurate measuring system. I bought the Frameco Ezy measuring system and it works well. And it is under $100.00. It is also long enough to measure up to 39 inches. Anything longer than this and you will have to move up to the 60 inch mat and glass cutters. In all the books I read none of them explained how to measure mouldings accurately when you are cutting them. Until I bought the Ezy measuring system I would use a rule and mark the underside of the wood mouldings. Then I would try to line up the mark under the saw blade and hope for the best! With the Ezy measuring system and the two Nobex saws my cuts were accurate enough to make decent frames. Here are the pictures of these products...
Above is the Nobex Proman, the larger Champion and the Ezy measuring system by Frameco. The measure lines are marked in 45's
and this is a must if you are going for accurate measurements. There are other measuring systems out there but be willing to spend some bucks.
Even with this setup I was accurate only 80% of the time. I then discovered that wood mouldings are inherently inaccurate. I thought that the mouldings might warp side to side a bit but they can warp in any direction and ever so slightly. So it is impossible to get perfect cuts every time. By this time I needed to get my hand miter saw blades sharpened. What I wasn't informed when I bought these Swedish saws was any hand saw blades with more that 12 teeth per inch cannot be sharpened at a saw shop. At least not by the saw shop I took it to. And not by any other saw shops I contacted. They can be hand sharpened with a small metal file but this was a process I had no inclination of learning. So here I was with another dilema...everytime my blades got dull I would have to buy a new blade (since I used the 18 and 24 teeth per inch blades). I knew then it was time to move up to a power miter saw.
My first power miter saw was a cheap compound 8 inch saw from Amazon.com. This was inaccurate and I sent it back. They sent me another one but this too was inaccurate...I gave this to my son. Then I bought a Makita LS 1030N on Ebay for about $100.00. When I got it set up I found this saw to be almost accurate. It was more beat up than in the picture on Ebay. I took this to a saw shop and found that stem that attached to the saw table was slightly bent. So they put a shim under one side of the stem. I was really upset and wanted to send this saw back to the seller...but when I looked up his reviews I found that he didn't send back some money to some of his buyers. I lost big on this deal so I just kept the saw and took the loss.
After lots of time looking for some deals on Makita miter saws I ran into a place called CPO Makita on the internet. They were selling reconditioned LS1030's for $79.00 with a factory guareentee. And the shipping was less than $10.00! I jumped on this and my saw arrived in a few days. This saw was accurate after I tuned it in. They had one more left so I bought the other one ... now I finally have a double miter saw set-up. But think of all the money I had spent before I got here. All in all I feel it was worth it. I have great knowledge of hand miter saws and the inconsistancy of wood mouldings.
  Here is my current double miter saw setup. I cannot over emphasize how double stick tape comes in handy. You can stick it to the saw fence to help hold some mouldings steady while you saw. If you look close at the stem and arm of the saw in the right picture you can see I attached some matboard pieces...with double stick tape. These are extra guides I made to force the saw dust into the vent. I am also using vacuum cleaner bags for dust bags. The dust bags that came with the saws do not have enough room when I have the saws side by side at 45 degree angles. I also made the clamping system you see on the right.
I hope some of this information might save you time and money if you ever start making picture frames...If you have any questions...email me.
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