rodger. Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 I made these two simplistic frames as a gift for a friends youngest daughter. I made one frame from cherry (with walnut splines) and the second from walnut with cherry splines to make a set. I used a mitre jig on my TS for the miters, and a buscuit joiner jig to cut the splines. The TS jig ensure nice, tight miters, and the spline jig ensure consistent spline slots. Insert jig photos The finish is pre cat lacquer, which I sprayed with my HVLP (earlex 5500). It was my first time using lacquer, and I really like how easy it was to lay out a nice finish. I used Marcs technique from part 2 of his mirror video. I normally spray water Bourne poly, but lacquer was easier to achieve a good finish with. The finish here is right off the gun. What I don't like is the solvent clean up of lacquer. It's a pain having to clean the gun with thinner, and then having to store the used solvent until a hazardous waste day. I much prefer the clean up of water based poly, where the gun can be washed and then clean water run through the system. Regardless, I am happy with the way that the frames turne out - enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Very nice work Pug! Those really turned out great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FtrPilot Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Very nice! Thanks for sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardA Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Ya done good, Pug ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davewyo Posted May 13, 2015 Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Not so simple getting those nice tight miters. Well done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted May 14, 2015 Report Share Posted May 14, 2015 Heck of a job Pug. Nice tight joints. Did you do the matting as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted May 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2015 Heck of a job Pug. Nice tight joints. Did you do the matting as well? Afraid the matts came from a photo store, I just plopped them in! I looked at cutting my own matts a while ago, but it didn't seem a good investment in the tooling required. I bought the matts for about 7 dollars each, and my local glazier cut the 3mm glass for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted May 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2015 Thanks for the comments guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted May 14, 2015 Report Share Posted May 14, 2015 Pug, do you have photos and / or plans for the biscuit splining jig you mentioned? Sounds interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted May 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2015 Pug, do you have photos and / or plans for the biscuit splining jig you mentioned? Sounds interesting. I have a spot in the original post for a photo - I'll snap a pic and drop it in a min. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted May 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2015 Pug, do you have photos and / or plans for the biscuit splining jig you mentioned? Sounds interesting. Congrats on your membership to the 3k club! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted May 14, 2015 Report Share Posted May 14, 2015 Dang, that really snuck up on me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trip Posted May 15, 2015 Report Share Posted May 15, 2015 Execution is first rate – nice tight miters and splines... The Cherry and Walnut are a good combination – the Cherry will darken and the Walnut will lighten. In a year or two, the combination will be subtle... A thought on aesthetics.... For the next frame, get yourself some straight bastard-grain stock and run the face and edge grain around frame... The effect is subtle, avoids distracting cathedraling and maintains viewer focus on the item being framed... Some mechanics: rip an edge from a straight-grained flat-sawn stick. If the stick is long enough, you can get the entire frame from a single rip. If careful with your miters, you can run the grain around the frame with a near-perfect match at each miter... Shooting lacquer with the Earlex is a good choice... For a picture frame, I’d have gone straight nitrocellulose lacquer or shellac --- even easier to shoot, lays-down more smoothly, etc. With a 2-stage, you’ll have a much better off-the-gun experience with shellac and/or solvent nitrocellulose lacquer over pre-cat, cat, etc. Yea, solvent cleanup is a b*tch... To deal with the solvents, I switched to a consumable setup (PPS) several years ago – it’s a night-day difference... The initial cost is around $400, but my use of solvents has declined by at least 80%... I used to go through 10-15gals/month of just cleanup solvent --- since I converted to a consumables setup, I’ve been on the same 5gal can for going-on two years... It’s not as clean as the advertising videos convey, but its way cleaner than not using a consumables setup... Anyway, nice job -- those miters are better than my typical result... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted May 15, 2015 Report Share Posted May 15, 2015 Nice work Pug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted May 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2015 Execution is first rate – nice tight miters and splines... The Cherry and Walnut are a good combination – the Cherry will darken and the Walnut will lighten. In a year or two, the combination will be subtle... A thought on aesthetics.... For the next frame, get yourself some straight bastard-grain stock and run the face and edge grain around frame... The effect is subtle, avoids distracting cathedraling and maintains viewer focus on the item being framed... Some mechanics: rip an edge from a straight-grained flat-sawn stick. If the stick is long enough, you can get the entire frame from a single rip. If careful with your miters, you can run the grain around the frame with a near-perfect match at each miter... Shooting lacquer with the Earlex is a good choice... For a picture frame, I’d have gone straight NSL or shellac --- even easier to shoot, lays-down more smoothly, etc. With a 2-stage, you’ll have a much better off-the-gun experience with shellac and/or NSL over pre-cat, cat, etc. Yea, solvent cleanup is a b*tch... To deal with the solvents, I switched to a consumable setup (PPS) several years ago – it’s a night-day difference... The initial cost is around $400, but my use of solvents has declined by at least 80%... I used to go through 10-15gals/month of just cleanup solvent --- since I converted to a consumables setup, I’ve been on the same 5gal can for going-on two years... It’s not as clean as the advertising videos convey, but its way cleaner than not using a consumables setup... Anyway, nice job -- those miters are better than my typical result... Thanks for the comments! I agree about the grain match. I left making these frames too late, and then had to use what i had on hand. What I had for walnut and cherry were two sections (one each) about 6" wide and 22" long. I didn't have much choice in the grain selection, and would have preferred to do as you said (grain wrap). Thanks for the detailed method! As for the finish, I think I will go back to water based poly (general hp) after I use up this lacquer. For a small time guy like me, it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense having to do so much toxic solvent clean up. I'll use this up (only 6 month shelf life), and maybe go back to it sometime in the future if I feel the need. I was happy to have the experience using it though. I may try spraying shellac through the hvlp next and see what kind of results I can get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janello Posted May 16, 2015 Report Share Posted May 16, 2015 Miters look great Pug! Nice job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trip Posted May 16, 2015 Report Share Posted May 16, 2015 ==>I may try spraying shellac through the hvlp next and see what kind of results I can get If it's a low-abuse item, a #1.5ct is a great finish -- easy to spray, un-matched clarity, etc... Check-out shellac.net... If you're sticking w/ a 2/3-stage, I'd really step-away from WB... You can shoot it, but you need more PSI (read as 10+) to get an off-the-gun finish... For the hobbyist, the “let’s-go-green” is really a bunch of crap. If you only use a gal or two of shellac and/or 275 lacquer per year, there’s not a lot of VOC in play... Plus you get a better shelf life (infinite w/ solvent nitrocellulose lacquer) and a much better level of finish with 2/3 stage --- for a lot less money... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodger. Posted May 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2015 does NSL stand for non-solvent lacquer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trip Posted May 16, 2015 Report Share Posted May 16, 2015 Sorry, should have been clear -- solvent-based nitrocellulose lacquer -- I'll go back and fix it... You can get it old school (except in California), low-VOC 550 and ultra-low VOC 275... Apart from "Sneak up on it", CN's other favorite is, "Deft makes wood look good"... I’m not sure if the video is on his free site or behind his paywall, but it’s a must see for those trying to get to the next level... Think it’s called, “Finish Fixes”.... It’s one of the ultimate ‘save butt’ techniques... I’ve used it myself more than I’d care to admit... Say you shoot a finish and something goes wrong – not terribly wrong, but just it doesn’t come-off – no Wow! Maybe the humidity is slightly too high, maybe the gun isn’t as clean as it should be, maybe a bad batch, whatever... Doesn’t matter, it happens --- even to those with loads of experience --- maybe the finish-Gods just didn’t smile... What do you do? Well, if you have the time, you sand-back, clean the gun, get a new batch of finish and wait for 72F/35RH to shoot it again... The “I’m out of time” answer is to lightly scuff-sand and shoot a light-to-medium coat of Deft – it’ll burn-in to the underlying finish and lay-down like glass... You go from "dud" to "wow" in about 15 minutes... The downside, of course, is that nitrocellulose lacquer doesn’t offer much protection -- but many pieces don't really need that much protection... BTW... Don’t mean to slag the green-guys -- where it makes a diference, going green is good... But have you noticed that there aren’t as many “WB is just as good as Traditional Finish” articles being published these days? Notice you don't see too many of the editors in FWW using WB on their projects anymore? Ever wonder why? Well there is trouble coming to paradise in the form of several lawsuits seeking class status... Won't happen because everyone is so invested in WB, but still... Turns-out that current-gen consumer-market WB finishes aren’t quite the panacea that the coating manufacturers would have everyone believe... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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