Shooting miters

[Rob Luter]

I was able to spend some time in the shop today. I’m between projects so I was focused on honing hand tool skills. I had a stick of rough sawn maple that was scrap from ripping a board, and thought, that looks like a frame.

I cleaned up and trued one edge, jointed it flat, squared and trued the adjacent sides, and jointed to uniform thickness. My #4 got everything smooth as silk. No electrons were harmed in the process. somewhere, Chris Schwarz was smiling.

Next was cutting a Rabbet in the back. No Rabbet plane. Hmmm? The Veritas small plow has a 3/8 cutter. It was a lot like work. Maple is hard stuff. I need a skewed Rabbet plane. Effort aside it worked just fine. My new sticking board worked great.

Now the miter cuts. Here’s where I get anxious. I can hand cut miters pretty close. Pretty close ain’t good enough. I remembered I made a bolt on fence for my shooting board, but never used it. No time like the present.

I trimmed everything to length and checked with my combo square. It showed all was well with the angles. It had deceived me in the past. The truth is revealed when you dry fit. I was pleasantly surprised. No gaps. The chatoyance reveals where the joints are, but no gaps.

This hand tool stuff is showing promise.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52615866220_00b1ab2dd5_b.jpg

[Jim Koepke]

Looks great Rob.

jtk

[Daniel Culotta]

Nice work. Those clamps look cool, never seen them before. What are they?

[Rob Luter]

Nice work. Those clamps look cool, never seen them before. What are they?

I got them from Rockler years ago. They do one thing but they do it very well.

https://www.rockler.com/frame-clamp-kit

[Tom M King]

Nice work! A lot of people look at a picture frame and think they're probably really easy to make.

[Rob Luter]

Nice work! A lot of people look at a picture frame and think they're probably really easy to make.

My experience is that the mitered versions are often humbling. You learn very quickly that 44.9 or 45.1 doesn’t cut it. It’s 45 degrees or nothing.

[Andrew Hughes]

Those do look great. I would like to suggest the next step is to glue them up. Gluing up miters with a panel in the winter is a lot easier then the summer when the glue sets up quickly. A thick glue line stands out in maple making A+ miters look like C+.
Good Luck

[Rob Luter]

I need to do some more detail work prior to the glue up. Bevels and such. I’m fortunate that my basement shop has relatively level temp/RH year round.

[lou Brava]

Miters look great ! I just finished 2 (haven't made a frame in about 30 years ) I've never seen that clamp it looks so much better than the corner clamps I've had laying around & for 45 bucks I'm getting one.
Thanks for posting that up.

[William Fretwell]

A beautifully squared frame like that must be the reason a picture hanging 2 degrees off vertical bugs me so much!
Will watch for the glue up.

[Mike Shields]

Nice work with the miters and wood/grain selection.....inspiring.

[Rob Luter]

I guess I never posted the post glue shot. It's had an oil and wax finish applied too.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53400990802_90c7d855f0_b.jpg

[Mark Gibney]

Very nice work Rob, and I too like those clamps. Might have to get a set.

[Jim Koepke]

Very good.

jtk