Rounded picture frames.


Sharkdog

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Hello!

 

I'm mostly a woodwork admirer, but occasionally I'll feel like getting my hands dirty and jumping in.

 

I've got a fairly easy project laid out for myself, picture frames. Overall these are fairly easy to make, but there's something I want to do that I can't really find any information or examples on how to do.

 

Namely, I want the corners to be rounded. 

 

I'm not entirely sure how to get this done. I think for a frame like this, you'll probably have to negate the 45 degree cut in favour of having the rounded corner, which means you'll have to somehow join the pieces elsewhere. I suppose you could make the rounded corner on the outside easy enough with some handy jigsaw and router work, but will it be just as easy to match the inside?

 

Here's some pictures to illustrate what kind of frames I'd like to make:

post-16115-0-15151000-1410190374_thumb.j

post-16115-0-29915800-1410190373_thumb.j

(On the left)

 

If anyone'd be willing to point me in the right direction, I'd be a happy camper!

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You could make rounded straight picture frame molding, miter the corners and assemble the frame, then add splines to the corners to strengthen them. Cut the corners roughly round on the bandsaw, or with a coping saw. Then use a router table to round the corners.

If you want the corners round on the inside and out it's gonna take some accurate templates and careful router work.

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or you can add a piece in each corner cut at 22 1/2 deg. to nip the 90 deg. corner off than you can round that off with a jig saw, router with template, scroll saw, band saw(only on the outside corner not sure what tools your dealing with. I'm pretty sure looking at the picture frames in the pictures that's how they a approached it.

med_gallery_2926_751_57508.jpg

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the prior 2 suggestions will work fine and make it easier to join the frame.

 

If you do round it off after joining the frame, keep in mind that it is not simply a matter of rounding off the inside and outside corners.  If you want the entire frame to have a consistent width (and the inside and outside corner to have the same radius), you will need to trim the straight part of the inside as well.   When you round off the outside corner, you are taking away material that needs to be made up for somewhere else.  It is hard to explain but this article might help illustrate.     You can make the inside corner a smaller radius, which will reduce the amount of material you need to remove from the inside straight parts.   

 

http://woodgears.ca/dovetail/impossible.html

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