Why can't I make picture frames?

[Wade Lippman]

I have always had trouble making picture frames and hate them.
My DIL asked me to make a frame for my son's MA diploma. I made him one out of brown oak for his BA and she wanted one to match. Well, I can't get any brown oak and figured trying to match it would be a fool's errand, so I made it out of red oak, figuring they would go together because they had the same grain, but were obviously different woods. The first one was matted maroon (BC) and this one will be matted red (UW), so it seemed appropriate.

I spent some time to make sure my kapex was perfectly adjusted, both vertically and horizontally. I cut my pieces and they are 45* dead on. I put them together and there is a space on the inside of all the corners big enough to slide a sheet of paper in. A little filler and no one will ever notice it, but WHY?!?!?!

What could I possible be doing wrong?

[John Kananis]

Use your tablesaw. Miter saws (even the festool) are not very accurate. Omga maybe, that's about all.

[Frederick Skelly]

I use my miter saw, then a shooting plane and board to refine.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

My miter saws do a fine job as do the table saw, radial arm saw, wooden miter box, back saw, etc. Learning how to keep them all dialed in has been a 40 + year journey.

[Jim Becker]

Hearne carries English Brown Oak...one of my favorite non-cherry/non-walnut species.

[Wade Lippman]

Hearne carries English Brown Oak...one of my favorite non-cherry/non-walnut species.
It was just one piece in with a lot of wood I bought at an auction. The edge of the board looked like normal red oak. I've never seen English oak, but presume it doesn't look like red oak.


I will try the table saw next time.

[Clifford McGuire]

I use my miter saw, then a shooting plane and board to refine.

This ^^^^^

Or a miter trimmer. I found a Lion Miter Trimmer on Ebay and use it for every picture frame.

[Phil Gaudio]

I have always had trouble making picture frames and hate them.
My DIL asked me to make a frame for my son's MA diploma. I made him one out of brown oak for his BA and she wanted one to match. Well, I can't get any brown oak and figured trying to match it would be a fool's errand, so I made it out of red oak, figuring they would go together because they had the same grain, but were obviously different woods. The first one was matted maroon (BC) and this one will be matted red (UW), so it seemed appropriate.

I spent some time to make sure my kapex was perfectly adjusted, both vertically and horizontally. I cut my pieces and they are 45* dead on. I put them together and there is a space on the inside of all the corners big enough to slide a sheet of paper in. A little filler and no one will ever notice it, but WHY?!?!?!

What could I possible be doing wrong?


I feel your pain. Seems like a simple project, but its not. Lengths have to be exact, and each miter joint has to be a perfect fit. Its one of those projects that
is just not as simple as it seems.

[Kevin Jenness]

I spent some time to make sure my kapex was perfectly adjusted, both vertically and horizontally. I cut my pieces and they are 45* dead on. I put them together and there is a space on the inside of all the corners big enough to slide a sheet of paper in. A little filler and no one will ever notice it, but WHY?!?!?!

What could I possible be doing wrong?

Your miter saw is adjusted as close to 45 as you can measure - over the length of one piece. When you put eight pieces together the discrepancies add up. A sheet of paper is about .003" thick. Most miter saws have a bit of play in the bearings and wobble in the blade - the only ones I have used that give flawless results are made by Omga, but CTD saws are said to be equivalent. The cure is to use a rigid, perfectly adjusted cutting tool with solid length stops or tune up the imperfect joints by hand with a shooting board, sanding block or similar.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Do the research, then buy yourself a Dubby for use on your TS. As to my Dubby, my only regret, is waiting so long to buy it. Jerry Cole has a video demonstrating his Dubby making various picture frames.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I find it much easier to pay attention to my power saws than to even think about trying to true up end grain with a plane and shooting board or sander. My saws are some of the humblest on this forum. With careful use and adjustment I have no problem with picture frames. Once again I try to point out that adjusting machines is a very big part of modern wood working.

[mike calabrese]

Possibly some of the links here could help.
https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=making+perfect+picture+frames&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

[Mike Cutler]

Spend an afternoon and make a nice picture frame sled, or jig for your Kapex out of quality materials.
You may never get an exact 45degree angle from a mitersaw, or sled, but you can pretty easily get two 45 degree complimentary angles close enough to 90 degrees that the cumulative math doesn’t bite you in the end.

[Richard Coers]

It is impossible to make dead on 45 degree cuts and then have every miter open. How or what you are measuring with has to be part of the problem. You should make one 45 degree cut, then place the board on it's edge on a flat surface. Take the other piece and flip it over and place it up against the first cut. You should see no light through the seam. You must use stops to make each side absolutely identical.

[mreza Salav]

Make a dedicated miter sled that is dead 90 degree, it doesn't matter if the 45's are dead accurate if you make each corner on the opposite sides of the slde that mate. I have never had problems.
Miter saws (even kapex) are not going to beat this setup.

490700

[glenn bradley]

All good suggestions here. We all find our way to air-tight miters. A miter saw is rarely it IMHO but some folks get lucky. I just use a well aligned tablesaw and a miter gauge.

490704

One thing is for sure; when you find the way that works for you, that is how you will do them ever after :)

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I resisted thinking I needed miter clamps for a long time. I now find them indispensable. I also continue to be pleased with the Ryobi mini biscuit jointer. I glue up two opposite corners into two L's, let them dry, then assemble the two L's to create the square or rectangle. I have to label the corners to keep from accidentally creating a worthless L .

490707

[Maurice Mcmurry]

All good suggestions here. We all find our way to air-tight miters. A miter saw is rarely it IMHO but some folks get lucky. I just use a well aligned tablesaw and a miter gauge.

490704

One thing is for sure; when you find the way that works for you, that is how you will do them ever after :)

Thats Beautiful Glen!

[Jim Becker]

It was just one piece in with a lot of wood I bought at an auction. The edge of the board looked like normal red oak. I've never seen English oak, but presume it doesn't look like red oak.
I was just responding give you mentioned it was "brown oak". English brown oak has a lovely brown colored heartwood and yellow-ish white sapwood. The photo shows the natural color:

https://sat02pap002files.storage.live.com/y4mpJHwCud5aLaoOaSSrF5laN_oFql5cpaZp9DeEZ4ld5Lvpkc NdTlo_CnqO_6cpWT7_MdWNfCUG9_AAAVUdDgA5_7kehh5ElNLI dHPaQOFjVCvs746MaynKDUbSK9JD6zl_n-jrqOyJrODC1NKwg5gaTIUsZQOmMyiEdUPI5iZXyOqhP8ntRAPu RIYp41qcyDm?width=660&height=440&cropmode=none

[Keegan Shields]

Anyone else think picture frames are the worst?

Probably my most dreaded honey-do.

Miter sled with stops works well, its just a pain to store unless you are doing picture frames with any regularity.

[Jim Becker]

A miter shooting board can really help fine tune things, but a table saw sled with opposing angles is a good motorized solution to have clean miters that line up exactly at 90º when put together.

[fritz eng]

I use my miter saw, then a shooting plane and board to refine.

IMHO one of the best videos on the subject of making picture frames.....best wishes

https://www.woodmagazine.com/video/how-to-make-perfect-inside-out-mitered-corners-0

[Derek Cohen]

I have always had trouble making picture frames and hate them....

I spent some time to make sure my kapex was perfectly adjusted, both vertically and horizontally. I cut my pieces and they are 45* dead on. I put them together and there is a space on the inside of all the corners big enough to slide a sheet of paper in. A little filler and no one will ever notice it, but WHY?!?!?!

What could I possible be doing wrong?

Wade, it is easy enough to get 3 corners spot-on. Then the fourth corner is a smidgeon off, and you can see a little light. There is a simple fix.

Hold the four corners together in clamps. Now, with the errant fourth corner, run a dozuki saw (which has a thin blade) through the corner ... through the kerf. Try the fit again. It will be better. Again, push the two sides together and use the saw through the kerf. Each time it will improve until it ends with a perfect mitre.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Stan Calow]

For me, it's usually the length of one or more of the pieces that is slightly off. Especially if you've been "adjusting" one of the miters. Then, I once had a piece that developed a crook after cutting, so the miters were 45 at the ends but the piece was not straight.

+1 for the Lion trimmer.

[Malcolm McLeod]

... perfectly adjusted... ...are 45* dead on... ...space... but WHY?!?!?!

What could I possible be doing wrong?


Your miter saw is adjusted as close to 45 as you can measure - over the length of one piece. When you put eight pieces together the discrepancies add up. A sheet of paper is about .003" thick. Most miter saws have a bit of play in the bearings and wobble in the blade - the only ones I have used that give flawless results are made by Omga, but CTD saws are said to be equivalent. The cure is to use a rigid, perfectly adjusted cutting tool with solid length stops or tune up the imperfect joints by hand with a shooting board, sanding block or similar.

There is no such thing as 'perfect', 'exact', or 'dead on' in the real world, and so Mr. Jenness is exactly correct (no pu... OK, OK, some pun intended). All measurements and angles have error - even if it is too small for someone to measure with the metrology* available to them. And frames are a classic example of error stack-up. All the errors - in every angle and length - add together, and explain the WHY?!?!?! of a space/gap in one or more joints.

Some good solutions proposed by others, but be aware that some of them can impact the target of rectilinear perfection in a frame. Even a 90* miter sled can be a problem- - it produces complementary angles that may add to (almost) 90*, but on really wide frame stock the resulting cuts (hypotenuse) in one joint may be noticeably different lengths. The error just gets relocated. Choose your poison.

*- $63 word that means 'measuring stick' ;).

[William Hodge]

I use a table saw sled for miters. Sometimes the wood isn't perfect, so I carve the back a little with a chisel. This sounds labor intensive, but it goes fast. The wall won't fret if the back's a little open.

[mike calabrese]

You might try using what is used to make segment bowl rings, it is called a wedgie sled.
You can get exact precise angles on a table saw using a DIY or commercial sled and a didital angle ga.
The picture here is a segmented bowl ring that I did re-purposed, there are 24 glue joints at a 15 degree angle using a DIY wedgie sled.
Cutting process would be slightly different as you most likely would flip end for end your frame member while bowl segments are flipped face to back but an accurate 45 using a sled should be quite easy and deadly accurate.
mike calabrese


examples
wedgie sled likks https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=wedgie+sled&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#cobssid=s
angle ga link https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GDN47JW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s01?ie=UTF8&th=1
490716

[Lee Schierer]

I always cut my frame pieces a bit long and then trial fit them. There are a number of things that can make "perfect 45's" leave a gap. If the trial fit is off, I can make a slight adjutsment and trim each end of each piece and trial fit again. If they are perfect the first time a trim on one end to the correct length gets the job done.

If your side pieces aren't perfectly straight, the 45 degree cut can be off. Clamping pressure can also skew the angles. I use a clamp that pushes on both sides of each corner and it puls all four pieces together.

My clamp is similar to this one.490741

A trick I learned from my father. Miter joints are essentially end grain, so you should coat both sides of the joint with glue to prevent glue starvation,

[Kris Cook]

A trick I learned from my father. Miter joints are essentially end grain, so you should coat both sides of the joint with glue to prevent glue starvation, - Something I would add - depending on the porosity of the wood, it may also help to let the glue soak in and then reapply.

[Mike King]

two things have to be correct for a 45 degree miter frame to close perfectly:

1. All of the angles have to be precisely 45 degrees, AND
2. The lengths have to be precisely the same lengths (verticals equal and horizontals equal).

If either is not true, then the miters will be open.

Mike

[Mel Fulks]

Many cut too slowly with electric saws, that can make the blade wobble some , the middle of the cut gets good support …while “entry “ and
exit are free to wobble . WORK FASTER ! And get RICH !

[Mel Fulks]

And even good sawyers will sometimes need to use a sharp chisel to flatten joint ‘belly’.

[roger wiegand]

Even if you cut perfect miters today they won't be perfect when the humidity changes. It's a fool's errand. I've looked at lots of picture frames made over the last 600 years (it's a bad habit-- when I go to an art gallery I spend more time looking at the frames than at what's in them), virtually all of them show cracks at the miters.

I've learned to like the look of a picture frame constructed with rails and stiles, and mortise and tenon joints at the corners. Not only do they not gap with the seasons, they are strong enough to resist racking in almost all circumstances. If you want them to look mitered you can veneer over top of them.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

My picture frame game got a lot better when I was asked to help create a memory lane. Poster size, framed photos that documented a local Businessman's journey to becoming a very popular landscape store owner. 50 frames and easel's. They had to be done in 3 days for his funeral. The lumber was his stock of rough, air dried hardwoods from trees his company had removed over the years. Some of the guests were given framed pictures after the funeral. I have one. I was totally exhausted and a little disgruntled at the funeral. I had learned a lot.

[Warren Lake]

thats interesting Roger. I dont like mitred cabinet doors and dont make them. I told the old guy I dont like mitred doors and he said he didnt like them cause they look like picture frames. Last time I saw mitred doors was on a vanity a friend bought. Worst work ive ever seen. I went to the web page and read about their high quality work. Of course. Doors were mitred and open already, likely before delivery. Depending on the mitre there are some details, Mel has mentioned one of them with the chisel.

[Mel Fulks]

I thinK it ….depends . A big factor is whether the cabinets are stained or painted . Mitre’d and painted doesn’t bother me if the doors are
are clearly, unmistakably slender. For doors that are even slightly broad ,they gotta be ‘stile and rail”, as they need a slendering touch.
I discovered those principles by watching beauty pageants as a kid.

[Paul Haus]

I have a dedicated miter gauge with a fence and stop-block that I use for cutting picture frames. I also have a set of these: Rockler Perfect Miter Setup Blocks - Rockler (https://www.rockler.com/rockler-perfect-miter-setup-blocks)
I can get the miter gauge exactly at 45 degrees and the stop block allows for cutting exactly the same length time after time.
It's worked out well for me.

[mreza Salav]

With a miter sled, No! It can be 45.1 and 44.9 and you will have zero gaps. As long as your miter sled sides are forming perfect 90 degree, and you make the mating parts on opposite sides. I have never had to tweak my cuts with the miter sled. It also has two stops and it achives perfect length as that is critical as you said.

[Prashun Patel]

My incra miter gauge worked reliably when I used to use a table saw.

Now I use an adjustable shooting board. It's even better at getting parts to the same length. It's also more gentle than the table saw if you are making thin or small parts - like wood mats for inside the frame.

[Justin Rapp]

I also have a frame in the works. I just milled the wood and cut in the rabbit this morning and dreading the miters, even though I built 3 frames just a few weeks ago. I did use my miter saw to make those frame. However, I am making it from Hawaiian KOA since the print going in is from a Hawaiian artist. Considering the cost of KOA, I don't want to have to do this twice. I'd actually love to know what machine the picture frame shops use.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

A high school buddy worked his way through college operating one like this.

490772
Double Mitre Saw For Picture Framing, Woodworking | Alfamacchine T-400 (https://www.fletcher-terry.com/frame-joining-material-cutting-products-1/alfamacchine-t400-double-mitre-saw)

[Steve Demuth]

Lots of great commentary here.

To get perfect miter joints on a frame you need two things: dead-on complementary angles in the corners, and dead-on equal length "arms" in the frame pieces. If either is off, your frame miter joints will not be tight. The obvious way to get the complementary angles is to have a tool that cuts dead-on 45o angles every time. If you don't have such a tool, a closely tuned miter sled, if properly will used, will cut angles that are complementary even if ever-so-slightly off 45o - you just have to have the "fence" be a dead-on right angle, and be sure to cut opposite ends of each frame piece using opposite sides of the fence. A shooting board or dialed-in miter trimmer is a real help, if you don't use the sled approach. Most miter gauges and miter saws are a challenge to keep and use accurately enough. If you get the angles right, you still have to get the lengths right. That means clean cuts (fuzz on the point of a miter makes measuring equal hard) in the right place. Use of stops on a miter sled can make this much more likely, but you have to careful about how you make and use the stops, because you're always stopping a pointy miter for the second cut, and it's easy to get that a few thousandths off. Again, a shooting board or miter trimmer fixes all kinds of sins.

And, not to be a downer about this, but it may not make much difference. If the frame isn't going into a place with very stable humidity control over time that matches the moisture content of your wood, it's going to develop gaps by the time it's been hung for a couple of years anyway. I like making frames, and have made a lot of them. I nearly always assemble them with splines or dowels to make the miter joints as stable as possible, but differential shrinkage and expansion has made nearly all of them look over time like I can't cut a miter to save my soul. C'est le travail du bois.

[Warren Lake]

Picture frame shops used Morso Mitre choppers. The last years under Hoffman same machines only white instead of green. Kermit said not easy being green so they changed colours.

They cut super clean and the high speed steel knives are off the map sharp. With knives out you can show someone by shaving hair off your arm but you might cut your arm off.

[John TenEyck]

Several ways to skin this cat, and all have been discussed. All I'll add is not many miter saws can consistently cut perfectly straight, so even if the angle is correct one side or the other of the cut will be just a smidge off. In the worst case you can see it the minute the cut is done, a little jog in the cut. Less poor, but still not good, is when you put the two parts together and then you see a little gap somewhere in the joint. Bigger, stiffer saws with more rigid blades typically do a better job. But in the end no rotating blade will ever cut as cleanly as the shearing cut from a plane, and this is where shooting boards shine. A shooting board with a well-tuned plane and a blade you can shave with is a beautiful thing for bringing a good miter, or bevel, to perfection. I'm mostly a machine tool user, and I've cut lots of frames that way, but a year or so ago I rediscovered how useful a shooting board is, and how easy it is with one to create perfectly fitting joints with minimal fuss. The old guys had no choice but to use a shooting board. Power saws didn't exist. Who would have thought that after the invention of all sorts of power saws that the shooting board would still be so useful?

John

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Miters are a basic carpentry skill, not necessarily considered fine woodworking at least by Grand Dad, Dad and myself. Grandpa trimmed houses and made picture frames with a home made wood miter box. Dad really modernized and has a Stanley 2358 and Disston back saw. I learned to trim houses and make frames with the Stanley and hand saw. It was also the saw we used for picture framing which we did whole lot of. My training has been that if the miter is not right straight off of the saw things are not going as they should. I may have gotten lucky with my heavy cast iron Makita. The DeWalt does a fine job too. The most difficult aspect of picture framing for me has been the mat cutter.

[mike calabrese]

You might try using what is used to make segment bowl rings, it is called a wedgie sled.
You can get exact precise angles on a table saw using a DIY or commercial sled and a didital angle ga.
The picture here is a segmented bowl ring that I did re-purposed, there are 24 glue joints at a 15 degree angle using a DIY wedgie sled.
Cutting process would be slightly different as you most likely would flip end for end your frame member while bowl segments are flipped face to back but an accurate 45 using a sled should be quite easy and deadly accurate.
mike calabrese


examples
wedgie sled likks https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=wedgie+sled&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#cobssid=s
angle ga link https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GDN47JW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s01?ie=UTF8&th=1
490716
To add to this here is a picture of the wedgie sled I have to cut segments for bowls. I used it to cut the bowl ring shown here. It easily will produce 45 degree cuts with a very high rate of accuracy. it is widely adjustable to just about any angle measured off the saw blade at the set up for the cut.
My sled is DYI, shown here with the digital angle ga set at 135 degrees to produce a 45 degree cut.
The glue up shown here is scrap pine example mini picture frane measures 4.5 x 4.5 inches.
You can get real great miters and if need be after cutting test pieces move the fence to dial in your product cuts.
The third pic is the length stop set in the miter slot, Other methods to control length would be the rip fence or a simple bloct set to the saw top with double sided tape

490815490816490818

[Edwin Santos]

An issue that can sometimes sabotage cuts at the miter saw is tiny amounts of movement in the workpiece. Picture frame material is thin, light, small, and can move ever so slightly mid cut. I ended up hot gluing a temporary auxiliary table with glued sandpaper, and suddenly my cuts became more accurate. Just pop the table off when done until next time.
Plus I gained a good spot for clamping on a stop block and a clear zero clearance cut line. Just one more idea to add to the list of good suggestions you've received.

[Mark Gibney]

Madness!
Any photos?

[Lee Schierer]

two things have to be correct for a 45 degree miter frame to close perfectly:

1. All of the angles have to be precisely 45 degrees, AND
2. The lengths have to be precisely the same lengths (verticals equal and horizontals equal).

If either is not true, then the miters will be open.

Mike

When I cut the pieces for the horizontal and vertical pairs, I stand each pair on end on my saw table and compare the sharp tips against each other. If they are not exactly equal to my eye the longer one gets trimmed to match the shorter one. This helps eliminate one variable.

[Stan Calow]

Because of the movement thing, for small thin frames, I find using my Nobex miter saw (a hand saw) to be a more accurate system for cutting.

[Mark Wooden]

First, I have to ask- how are you checking your cuts? Combination square? Don't.
Find a good steel(if possibe) or aluminum 'rafter' square. Test it against itself to see that it is square ( this may take some effort as last time I looked at some, there was only one out of four that was good)
Now, cut two mitres on one side of what ever saw you're cutting with, flip one to make a 90 degree corner and place inside the square- your mitre error(or none hopefully) will be one half of what you see. Do the same for the other side of your saw, until you're getting accurate mitre angles.
I know it sounds like a lot of work, but it doesn't really take that long
I use a sled very similar to Mreza's, once built, it cuts beautifully with a good blade. I've got a Lion mitre trimmer too, but dont need it very often.

[Derek Arita]

My $.02...dare I say, most of us don't clamp down the work piece to cut on the miter saw or have a non-slip backing on the miter saw fence. As a result, as the you make the cut, the workpeice gets pulled into the blade causing a very slight deviation from 45*. Try clamping down the workpeice before making the cut.

[Dave Sabo]

To add to this here is a picture of the wedgie sled I have to cut segments for bowls.

Nice looking sled - why did you chamfer the edge against the saw blade ? Seems like that would invite tearout.

[Roger Feeley]

This ^^^^^

Or a miter trimmer. I found a Lion Miter Trimmer on Ebay and use it for every picture frame.
For some reason, the lion miter trimmer really scares me. Of course, I have four grandchildren.

[Wes Grass]

Cutting an angle and flipping them over to check is always going to make a perfect match. 15 deg mates with 75 deg.

Unless blade runout, wobble, generates a curved surface.

I've found a very light touch on the miter saw yields good cuts. It takes very little sideways force to tweak them off square, or whatever angle you're set at.

It ain't the saw, it's technique.

[Stan Calow]

For some reason, the lion miter trimmer really scares me. Of course, I have four grandchildren.
Yeah, you have to show some respect for a double guillotine. I was thinking about making some kind of lockout for it.

Cutting an angle and then flipping it over is fine, but then you have to cut rabbets which creates another matchup problem opportunity, and sometimes you want the grain to flow.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Cutting an angle and flipping them over to check is always going to make a perfect match. 15 deg mates with 75 deg.

Unless blade runout, wobble, generates a curved surface.

I've found a very light touch on the miter saw yields good cuts. It takes very little sideways force to tweak them off square, or whatever angle you're set at.

It ain't the saw, it's technique.


15 mates with 75 but does not a miter create, unless you are joining a 1 x 2 to 1 X 6. Even 44 next to 46 is not a true miter and the corners will show it. Particularly if you are working with pre finished.

[mike calabrese]

Nice looking sled - why did you chamfer the edge against the saw blade ? Seems like that would invite tearout.
Hi Dave
What you see there is a triangular strip of wood that is attached to the table saw insert.
It is placed close to the blade but does not interfere with the blade at all.
The purpose for the triangle piece is when a wedge piece drops off the sled at finish of the cut the wedge fall upon this piece and is directed away from the blade in an attempt to avoid a nasty kick back.
I did not invent this by any stretch it is a ubiquitous piece of just about every segment cutter's setup.
The pictures here are from the internet shows the feature pretty clear and you can see it in action in all kinds of Youtub vids on wedgie sleads. See this link below starting at 4:00 minutes real clear demo.
Thanks for asking your question.
mike calabrese490991

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaEHetjBqio&list=PLcD0mPbxaU-RbQVu53GiHoiWAj56lgx2d

[Maurice Mcmurry]

15 mates with 75 but does not a miter create, unless you are joining a 1 x 2 to 1 X 6. Even 44 next to 46 is not a true miter and the corners will show it. Particularly if you are working with pre finished.

15 / 75 actually looks pretty cool! I think this will become a Christmas ornament.

491048

[Steve Demuth]

Beautiful picture that demonstrates the point about complementary angles, and the fact that while they are not fully symmetrical, they do in fact make a perfectly square frame, and can be quite decorative as well.

[mreza Salav]

I have already said this a few times, if you build a sled you don't have to worry about getting perfect 45 degrees as long as your sled has a perfect 90 opposing fences. Once you ise this method the simplicity and accuracy, won't have any problemt. I have a t-trackeuilt into the fences with two stops on the two sides to get perfect lengths too.

[Steve Demuth]

I have already said this a few times, if you build a sled you don't have to worry about getting perfect 45 degrees as long as your sled has a perfect 90 opposing fences. Once you ise this method the simplicity and accuracy, won't have any problemt. I have a t-trackeuilt into the fences with two stops on the two sides to get perfect lengths too.

They still have to be darn close to equal 45s, or you get mismatched apparent widths of the miters, and misaligned moldings in the frame.

[mreza Salav]

They still have to be darn close to equal 45s, or you get mismatched apparent widths of the miters, and misaligned moldings in the frame.

True but 44.8 and 45.2 is close enough for that purpose but 45.1 and 45.1 (times 4) is never going to give perfect mating.
I have never had problems with this setup.