How to Make Floating Picture Frames

This video is sponsored by Rockler. Hello everyone, Michael Alm. So this week I built a set of

frames

. These are knotted

frames

for a friend of mine, Yuval. These are his father's paintings and they were in pretty bad condition when I bought them. The frames were falling apart. They were nailed on the sides. Probably the original frames, but they weren't very well made, so what we've done is upgraded them to a

floating

mount, which means it has an air gap around it and that keeps all the pressure off the frames. If it has a recessed edge, it could damage the canvas.

This is a really clean modern look that is ideal for works such as canvas. If you're thinking about making frames in your store for clients or even yourself, this is very useful to know, so stick around and I'll show you how they're made! So first I had to remove the old frames and luckily they didn't hold up very long. They were just nailed in with a couple of rusty nails and came loose very, very easily. The second frame was pretty much the same as the first, except it had a bunch of staples in the corner that held the miter in place.

Luckily, that was pretty much all that was holding the miter together, so once I turned the frame over and removed the edges, it was all free and ready to be measured. Now I like to measure from multiple points so you'll see if there are three points on each side just to

make

sure things are nice and square. There's nothing warped or anything like that and then I take the paintings out of the room. Alright, the measurements I took now I'm going to use to determine what size I need to cut my material and to

make

it for a

floating

mount frame is very, very simple.

You add the space you will have on each side plus the thickness of the material. Now the space and thickness are doubled because they are on both sides. So in this case I have an eighth of an inch gap and a 3/8 inch material. That adds up to half an inch and then I double it and it's one inch. So if I add an inch to each of these measurements, I get the actual dimension of the outside of the frame. With the outside dimension determined, I can now cut out all of my material, and I usually add about an inch to each cut just to make sure I have enough material, in case something goes wrong.

Now by moving around on the table saw I can set the depth of the frame and this is a fairly arbitrary measurement. It depends on the look of the frame you want, but I went with an inch and 7/8 for these. To make the rip cut and set the width of the frame, I am laying down a featherboard. This just keeps the stock nice and tight to the fence as I work on it, so I get a really consistent cut. I'm cutting them to three-eighths of an inch and that was just the thickness I talked to the customer about and he really liked having a nice thin reveal.

Now we can cut the rabbet for the strainer. This is a 1/8 inch recess, and the main thing we need to worry about here is the top measurement. It just needs to be a little thicker than the thickness of the paint you are working with. In a minute I'll explain what a strainer is, don't worry about that, but now we can move on to cutting all the miters. I like to make batches of miters. Since we're only making two here, it's not a big deal, but if you're making like a dozen, this would be a pretty important step.

I like to cut all the miters at once on one side, and that way when I go to measure them, I can measure them all at once and prepare the material for the next cut. Now that I have all those measurements established, let's talk about how to get really nice miters. Having a good sled is important, but I really like to cut my miters three or four times before I hit the line. I found that this creates a really nice miter and then one way to check them is to stack the two pieces together and make sure they are at exactly the same height.

With all the pieces cut out for the two frames, I can now start putting them together and I'm a big fan of the blue tape method. It's really effective and you don't need to buy a bunch of expensive clamps. And you don't need much holding force when it comes to photo frames; You usually reinforce the miter anyway, so I just make sure it comes together really well since it's the most important part. So I'm doing a dry fit here and I like to do this before I glue things together. The reason I do this is because I want to test the fit of those paints and that way I can tell if there are any discrepancies.

If my spacing is wrong I can always re-cut things, unfortunately they fit really well but I've definitely had a few moments where I've adjusted it little by little. I will have to trim again to make it an easy way to trim at this stage and then when everything is glued together. Now that I have confirmed that they are the correct size, I can glue them all together. I really like this little finger tool that Rockler makes. It's fun. I used to use my finger for everything and now I don't have to cover all the glue with my fingers, which is nice so you don't end up with a bunch of glue marks all over the frame. you're putting it together.

Now, if there is one downside to the blue tape method, it is that it doesn't hold a frame square very well. So while I'm gluing them together, I add these squares in the corners. I just need it in a corner to keep everything together. Once the frames have at least half an hour to dry, I like to start working on the slots. This is my fluted jig, it's super simple, it's basically an M glued together, but it allows my saw blade to go up and through. When I attach the saw blade, I make sure it doesn't go through the inside of the frame.

That's really important and then I just space it in the space that I think looks best. I leave those pieces of blue tape in the corners because it helps prevent them from tearing and if for some reason they aren't fully cured, the blue tape can hold them in place a little. Now we can cut out those striations and I just took one of the cuts from the frame. I like to match the wood as much as possible and only cut one edge. Just to keep it nice and safe, I cut them out with the bandsaw once they got a little small, the bandsaw is the best I can use, and then cut them longer than the width of the slice on the side of the frame.

I like to cut them a little bit on the thick side, just a little bit, and then I can sand them to fit. The fit you are looking for is a fit where they fit into the slot very smoothly, but cannot be pulled out. I found that to be really nice. It tends to swell once you add glue, so you don't want to tighten them too much because you won't be able to register them fully in the slot. With all the serrations glued in place, I was able to trim them flush and I just use a pull saw for this.

This is a really affordable cheap pull saw, maybe about twenty dollars, and it does a great job. I like to trim them a little on the thick side so I can sand them flush and then I found that's the best way to do it without risking damage to the side of the frame. Now I can move on to making the strainer. And what is a strainer? So it's a pretty common part on a lot of different styles of frames. In this case it is what holds the canvas, so it is very important for the structure of a floating frame.

I like to cut them to fit and you can see I only use my circular saw for this because the miters aren't as precise. You just need to make sure they fit into the frame and have some play. You want about 1/32 of an inch of play in each frame. Another benefit of that strainer is that if you have a springy side on a frame, it pulls everything out nice and flat. So before gluing the strainer parts together, I like to set up this jig to drill some holes in the actual strainer. They are placed at a 45 degree angle, it's really simple.

Just a two-by-four cut at 45, a small block of wood, and you want that hole to come out right in the corner of the wood. It takes a little time to set up, but once you do, you can take out all those pieces, mark the locations of the different holes, and then start drilling them. I like to space them about three inches from the outside edge and then put about four inches between each hole. I'll center them on the shorter sides. I like to have at least three screw holes on each side of the strainer. And then you can take all those sides and glue them together.

I use a staple gun to join them together and reinforce the miter. You will want to staple both sides of the miter at all four corners. At least two staples per side. It's always safe to check for a squad and make sure everything is okay. They were nice and square. And then place them on the frames and make sure there are no problems. This one with the stretchy side you have to push it in a little, but it was pretty much perfect for me. and the second frame also fits very well. If you've seen the one hundred and forty-one frame video I posted a while ago, you've seen this technique before, and I love it.

This makes sanding these frames much easier. I basically placed blocks on the side of my table. I simply screw them to the side of the table and hang the frames while I sand them. This makes it really easy for me to rotate while sanding and get those sides really nice and flat. I'm working with 120 grit sandpaper and it just takes care of all the milling marks. Any type of imperfection. All the proud splines and stuff like that. I sand all sides making sure not to leave too many scratches on the miters and then dust it to look for gaps and knot holes.

Everything you need wood putty. I'm picky about wood filler, but it's very important because it will show up in the stain if there are holes in the knots or something. I then sanded up to 320 grit and once the frame was done it was on to frame number two. Alder is a much softer wood than walnut, so you have to be careful with it. You don't want to sand it or distort it, but it holds up much faster than walnut. Now it's time to move on to finishing and I'll finish both frames in different ways. I'm using just oil-based polyurethane here for the alder frame and that will bring out its warmth and give it a really nice strong finish.

I applied three coats of this, sanding between coats, and it will bring out the warmth of that grain. For the walnut frame I'm going to blacken it and for that I'm going to use this stain that I talked about in my finishing video. If you're really curious about all the finishes I use in my shop, check out that video. But in short, it is a mixture of oil paint and dryer. The dryer is called Galkyd. There are a lot of different dryers and then the oil paint is Mars black oil paint and these two are mixed in a one to one ratio and the result is fantastic.

It's a unique finish, it comes out in a really nice black shade that you have a lot of control over. The only downside is that it takes about a week to dry. I apply it quite a bit and then wipe it off until I get the desired finish and then let it sit for about a week. Strainers have their own process which basically consists of sanding and painting them. I paint them a matte black. This is a black gesso that I bought at the art supply store. Once the week passes I can polish the finish. I just use a piece of sturdy fabric, this one cut from a pair of old Carharts, and using quite a bit of pressure, I buff the finish until I have a really nice shine.

You see how good that black and walnut looks. I also like to polish the polyurethane, it just takes care of the high spots and evens out the shine and then it's time to install those now dry strainers. The strainers go in with screws, you really want to test the length of the screws so they don't come out the side of the frame. I think these were three quarters of an inch and were perfect for this application. Now I can insert the paints and to keep the space really nice I use these handy shims that you have seen me use on numerous different projects;

They are invaluable in my workshop. I'll post a link below where you can pick them up. I basically use them to secure the painting to the frame and then I can screw it in from the back through some pre-drilled holes. Once this is done, I can remove the handy shims and I like to remove the back one first so as not to catch on any of the painting canvases. Paint number two is exactly the same as the other paint, screwed in from the back, handy shims, you know the deal. Now, one thing to note about these paintings is that I set them up so that the top edge of the frame is a little proud of the surface of the painting, which helps if you're going to flip the painting or wrap it.

Prevents paint from being damaged. Now I'm putting in the hanging hardware and that's really the last step before I finish these things. Hi everyone, thank you so much for watching and let me know in the comments below if you have any questions about this process. Many thanks to this week's sponsor, Rockler. I've been using his tool bag this whole time and I love it, it's my new everyday bag so thanks Rockler. Thanks to my Patreon followers, who support me every month. You guys are fantastic! Other than that, hit the like button, hit the subscribe button and I'll see you in the next one. you