|
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 dilemma...every time 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 guarantee. 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 inconsistency 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.
You can read the dates on the pictures above. Today is December 19, 2010 and I learned a lot between 2008 and 2010 about miter saws. I found out I had to periodically adjust my saws because they would get out of alignment. Not only side to side but top to bottom. And these saws are the Makita 1030s. They are not a compound saw and there is no adjustment for the perpendicular of the blade to the table. But one of these saws got out of line on the perpendicular. I had to make mat blade shims and put them under one side of the stem the holds the blade to the table. After a few more months of periodic frustrations I finally found a good used deal on a used Framesquare miter saw.
Here it is ...
 
This saw is a very accurate saw. It has one 10 inch blade on a table like a table saw and has a sliding surface sled with two long arms set at 45 degrees. It has a great clamping system and will cut mouldling up to 4.5 inches wide. I made about 20 frames with this saw until I came up to a frame where the corners were not perfect. I checked out the moulding and saw some warp in it. I patched it up and continued to use the saw without a fuss. Then I bought a box of one inch moulding which contained 450 feet. When I started making frames with this moulding my frames were not getting perfect corners. I checked out the mouldings and found many to be slightly warped either side to side or top to bottom. (I'll tell you about twisted mouldings some other time). After struggling with all the variations of warping in wood mouldings I found I needed a sander. And it was the box of this particular moulding that convinced me. Here are the variations I can think of that will give you untrue corners in wood moulding no matter how good your saw cuts ... your moulding can be warped side to side, top to bottom, twisted (here you have no chance), the thickness top to bottom of the moulding might not be perfect, the rabbet cut out might not be perfect, the width of the moulding might not be perfect and these are ones I learned about after 3 years of cutting various mouldings. I wonder if there might be another imperfection I'll run into? I remember telling someone that if his saw cuts perfect 45 degrees he wouldn't need a sander ... I was wrong. You will need a sander someday ...
 
Here I am updating this page after another good year for a home based custom framing shop. It is now 2012 and after I bought that Logan sander I didn't think it would last for a long period of time. So I sold it and bought this ...
This is the ITW AMP sander. It is a beast. I think it will last a couple of lifetimes. I bought it used for $350.00. It retails near $700.00. It was in excellent shape and I use it a lot.
I had a email asking me how I join and clamp the cut moulding. There are several ways to clamp and there are lots of different clamps out there. Here is the picture of the cast iron clamp used by lots of framers.
I use this clamp but mostly use the strap clamp. Get a strap clamp with plastic corners and one with the metal corners. The metal corners have an indent on the bottom and work for mouldings that are narrow on the outside.
As for underpinning the frame I recommend the hand press type for beginners. I have the HP 2000 made by Framer's Corner in England. You might find one on Ebay. Logan now makes something similiar.
I use pieces of foamboard to absorb the stress when pressing down on the handle. I still use this press at times but I have moved up to the Cassese CS 79 manual foot operated underpinner.
My next upgrade would be to an underpinner that I don't have to use a clamp. But I now have all the equipment I need for the amount of framing my shop produces. It took me a few years to advance to the tools and equipment but I didn't have to go in debt to get all my stuff.
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.
|
