Making Picture Frames with a Sliding Mitre Saw - A woodworkweb.com woodworking video

Making picture frames with a sliding mitre or chop saw is easy when you know the secrets of frame making and understand how to set up the saw to make perfect cuts.
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Closed Caption:

hello everyone call the cadet here for
woodruff web in this episode we're back
making picture frames
we've had so many requests from people
about making a video using a sliding
mitre that we decided to see what we can
do to set something up that could make
picture frames using that tool
anybody who's made picture frames or at
least trying to make picture frames will
probably understand that it's not always
as easy as it looks
you know you look at a simple picture
frame and there's four corners
it takes four pieces of wood you just
cut each one at a 45 degree angle but
when you go to put them all together
it's very common that they don't line up
properly and so you have to go back and
make three cuts
well today we're going to show you why
those really cuts don't work and how you
can set your saw
so that when you do cut them they're
going to be right the first time
the real secret to making picture frames
is this the two opposing sides need to
be exactly the same length so this side
and this side need to be exactly the
same length and this side and this side
also need to be exactly the same like
that doesn't matter what length they are
as long as this side and this side are
equal and this site and this site and
here's what i mean by that
now it's really easy to make cut the the
four sides and the first three sides go
together really well you've got perfect
joints perfect joint perfect joints but
when you get to the last one that's
where all the joints compound and if
you're off by a degree
now that compounds for time so now
you're off at least four degrees so in a
lot of cases you'll end up with a gap
that looks like this
this is a big gap so what a lot of
people will try and do is take one or
the other of these take it back
back to the saw and they will hot like
this they'll make a cut across hear them
don't realize that this is this angle so
they'll make a cut like this but look at
exactly what's happening when they do
that
so here's what a lot of people do they
cut through to correct the angle so that
it will fit or they think it will fit
with the existing the other the other
side of this frame but in fact when they
make that cut you can actually see
they've actually cut the frame and made
the frame slightly shorter so this frame
can never go together properly because
it's not cut right it's cut this arms
cut too short
so here's what you're going to need for
this project
of course you're going to need your
sliding miter saw and the better quality
on that the easier it's going to be for
you to work with
you're going to need a couple of clamps
maybe more than a couple but at least a
couple of clamps and we'll talk about
those later on as we go along
you may need different clamps you're
also going to need what I'm calling a
backer board now this is very important
because this is going to be the new
fence that you're going to be clamping
to your sliding miter saw and this board
needs to be absolutely flat and true and
straight and it will the late the width
of it is going to depend on your saw and
he will talk about that
- once we get this installed but it's
important it doesn't matter
this is plywood or an MDF or man-made
material or natural wood as long as it
is straight and flat and probably you
know what about three quarters of an
inch thick
the length of it again is that that
critical because that's going to depend
on how long your frames or the longest
frame is that you're going to make this
one here is about two three and a half
feet and the last thing that most one of
the most important things you're going
to need is a very good quality splayed
on your chop saw
and if you're using the blade that came
with your top so you're probably going
to need to go and get it a good
this is an 80 tooth fried blade and
that's what we recommend is something at
least the quality like that
so the first thing we're going to do is
get the chop saw in place on plug it and
we're going to install our blade and
we're going to proceed with the self
so the size now unplugged off camera
I'm going to simply replace the blade
with this on the saw and then we'll
start with the seven
ok as you can see I've installed the a
tooth blade
what I'm going to do now is I am going
to plug the saw in and i'm going to cut
by backer board i'm going to cut a
four-inch piece off of this
and after we get finished cutting this
I'll show you what it's going to be used
for you
yeah
now that little piece that I cut off
it's actually going to be used as a
marking gauge on this board when we put
when we clamp this backer board when we
clamp the backer board to the miter saw
this board will be moved back and forth
on that backer on that backer board to
make sure that we have the right length
on both sides of our frame sides so this
little backer board is going to be
sliding back and forth for this little
marker board is going to be sliding back
and forth on this backer board but in
order to keep it we want to keep it
vertical
so what I got is I've just got a piece
of scrap wood here and I'm just going to
tack it onto the top of this so that it
will keep this from twisting like that
and to speed things up
i'm just going to use for right now
normally I would glue this and maybe
screw it but for right now I'm just
going to tack this with a stapler
so they all see how this is going to
work now that will sit on there like
that and this will have the ability to
move back and forth
now the next thing we're going to do is
unplug the saw
we're going to set up the backer board
against the fence we're going to clamp
it and then we're going to set the angle
of the saw
ok with our saw unplugged now we're
going to clamp the backer board to the
saw and this is where we talked about
the height
I have quite a bit of height here in my
saw
but frames are not going to be all that
thick so you have to come to a happy
medium
with your clamps because your clamps are
going to need to fit over top and close
enough to be able to clamp down that
backer board to your existing fence
now the next thing we're going to do is
move the saw into the 45 degree angle
now that's a 45 degree angle with my saw
but that doesn't mean that the saw is
accurate and this is where you need to
have a very fine
measuring device to make sure that the
saw is actually set at 45 degrees and
that is also why i saw needs to be
turned off right now
now when I like to use to double check
to make sure the saw is at 45 degrees or
to set it 45 degrees is not one of these
carpenters squares i found some of them
are accurate and some of the art instead
what you'll probably want to do is to go
to an office supply store and purchase
one of these these are draftsman these
are accurate 45-degree this one is clear
so it's a little hard to see and these
are accurate 45-degree squares or
triangles and they are what you need to
be able to check your saw to make sure
that it's at 45 degrees
ok still with the saw unplugged
what I'm doing now is pushing the blade
down in place and I'm checking it with
the square and again it might be hard
for you to see because it's clear and in
my case it looks like it's just about
perfect now if it's not perfect
typically what you'll have to do is make
some adjustments and and set your saw
manually so that it is actually at 45
degrees in the only way you can check
that is with this but we're going to
make a test cut right now and double
check to make sure that it's at 45
degrees because that part is critical
okay now before i make this test cut
your angle because it's square and
you've probably already clamp the the
the backer board in i'm actually going
to move mine i'm just going to slide my
back a little bit and I'm going to cut
because it hasn't been
it hasn't made an initial cut here I'm
going to make that initial cut
first of all so it's going to plug the
saw and now and we'll make that initial
cut then we'll cut our test board
yeah
ok now I'm going to make my test cut and
I have a nice flat board here and I'm
just going to set it in like that and
we'll go ahead and make that cut
ok now we want to check that
now you can use whatever you want to
check that angle to make sure that's
right on
you can use your original draftsman
triangle and you might need to put a
board on either side of that just to
either side of that board and see how
that slides into it
i'm going to use by digital protractor I
i absolutely love this tool it is so
accurate and so versatile and i'm just
going to check that and see what it says
and there it is right there mine says 45
. 45.1 degrees and I don't think it can
get any more accurate than that one of
the things you might want to check when
you're clamping your backer board on
there is that you don't have any dust
between your backer board and the fence
on your sliding mitre because that can
also affect how the backer board is
sitting flush against that little bit of
dust can make a quite a bit of a
difference
ok now we're going to set up to make our
picture frames
now the first thing you need to do when
making picture frames with the sliding
mitre is you need to take your frame
material and here's my or blank boards
and you need to make an initial 45
degree cut on every one of these
so that's what I'm going to do now is
make that initial cut
yeah
ok now that I've made my initial cuts on
all of my frame material
the next thing I need to do is to use my
marker and set my marker
somewhere along the backer board and I'm
going to need to clamp that down
but the question about where to set and
that's going to depend on how long the
frames are that you're making or what
dimensions are and what I do I actually
make because a lot of my frames are
repetitious
I actually make a a marker stick and
that marker stick fits right to that
angle and I take this and but it up to
that board and then I just clamp that
down
and now that means that those two frames
are going to be those that side of those
two frames are going to be exactly the
same length just clamp that down and
that's perfect
now i'm going to cut my first two sides
and this end now
wats up against that stopper and we make
our first cut
second side
what's up against the stopper nice and
tight
there's two sides of our frame and those
are absolutely identical in length
now that we've made the two long sides
we need to reset up and make the short
sides of the frame so we need to loosen
that clamp slide this long and there's
my marker Ford and it sits right in
there like that and that marker board
needs to slide along great to their and
clamp that double check that and make
the second hats on the other two sides
but this up against the stopper
yeah
here's the two short sides and they are
also absolutely the same length
what I have set up on my workbench at a
little hard to see because it would i
would but i have these rails on the back
and the side and i put this square in
here so you can see it better
and these rails are set absolutely at 90
degrees and I use them for putting
together different 90-degree boxes and
angles and in this case we're going to
use it for putting our frame together
because we're actually going to pin this
frame together that we just made and
there's our pieces
there's the short pieces and there's the
two long pieces and we can just simply
put those in place
yeah
put a dirt in there and put those
together just like that
there we go those are those are very
good joints those are excellent joints
and we're going to i'm just going to get
the pin out and we'll pin those together
yeah
there you see our picture frame and you
can see those joints are very very tight
what would need to happen now is I would
typically have glued these and pin them
or used some splines in there depending
on whether it was going to be glass and
now we need to be sanded down and and
finished
that's how easy it is to make frames on
sliding later
so making picture frames on the sliding
mitre is really pretty simple
you need to make sure your equipment is
set up properly and that you understand
that the parallel sides of a picture
frame need to be of equal length and you
two can make perfect professional
corners it's that simple
if you have a digital protractor that
will help you in setting up your tools
the only thing that you really need is a
fairly inexpensive triangle available at
most office supply stores
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