I'm posting this because it is another style frame that might be of use to scrollers.
Sometimes when you have a thicker cutting, like 1/2" or 3/4" thick it is hard to make a frame for it. Most people will just glue strips of wood to the sides and call it good but, of course I have a bit more difficult yet more finished way of doing it.
A friend came in with an oil painting and wanted a frame for it. As you may know the canvas is stretched over a wooden frame on an oil painting so it is a bit more difficult than framing a thin photo or 1/8" scroll saw project because of the thickness.
As it turned out, the painting would look fairly good in a rougher, rustic looking frame, and who is better at sloppy wood working than me?
The painting was about 5/8" to 3/4"thick and measured 12' x 16". I had a stick of 1" x 1-1/2" fir 8 foot long which actually measured 13/16" x 1-5/8 so that should work!
First, I cut the stick into two pieces 19" and two pieces 15" long intentionally using a hand saw for the "rough" look. I'm not a good hand saw cutter and really didn't want a nice square smooth cut anyway.
Next I went back to the power tools, the router table in this case, and cut a stopped grove into the side of each piece. It is 1/4" deep and 1" wide and just over 16" long (or 12" long on the short pieces).
I squared up the rounded corners left by the router bit with hand chisels.
I didn't realize until after the fact that this was a totally unnecessary step!
The half lap joint notches removed all of my hand work.
I measured, marked and cut the notches for the half lap on the table saw by nibbling out the waste and checking for fit as I went. Remembering that notches on the short side are cut on the bottom edge and the long side notches are cut on the top (or front) side all went well. However the reverse probably would have looked better.
Hind sight is a wonderful thing.
Next, it was just a matter of glue-up. It is just straight forward put on the glue, slide the notches together and it comes out almost perfectly square BUT, I check it for sure anyway.
Oh! and make sure it fits the oil painting before glue-up too!
Now, slap on a bunch of stain and we are GOOD TO GO! You can beat it up with a piece of chain or a hammer or what ever if you have a sick mind like mine.
It is a nice, rustic but, very strong frame and NO miters or splines to mess with.
Hope this might help someone some time.
Rog
