Joe Chritz
03-26-2008, 2:42 AM
After several posts on making picture frames and reinforcing the miters I did a little test.
I had a piece I made for a cabinet trim left over. 5/16 thick x 1 1/4 wide. The long leg was about 10" long. Clamping the short leg to a saw horse I added weight (strip nails in this case) to a paint can until the miter broke.
As you can see from the pic it took a decent amount of weight to break the joint and it is clearly a glue failure. The joint was put together by rubbing a bit of glue in the joint and leaving it sit. No tape or clamps. By weighing a strip of nails it appears there was about 6.3 lbs hanging 9" from the joint (not counting the can) and the 19th strip of nails broke the joint.
With bigger glue surfaces, better gluing techniques and clamps I am still happy using just glue on all but the largest picture frames. I don't know if a full frame would survive a fall from the wall but they aren't really made for that.
FWIW
Joe
I had a piece I made for a cabinet trim left over. 5/16 thick x 1 1/4 wide. The long leg was about 10" long. Clamping the short leg to a saw horse I added weight (strip nails in this case) to a paint can until the miter broke.
As you can see from the pic it took a decent amount of weight to break the joint and it is clearly a glue failure. The joint was put together by rubbing a bit of glue in the joint and leaving it sit. No tape or clamps. By weighing a strip of nails it appears there was about 6.3 lbs hanging 9" from the joint (not counting the can) and the 19th strip of nails broke the joint.
With bigger glue surfaces, better gluing techniques and clamps I am still happy using just glue on all but the largest picture frames. I don't know if a full frame would survive a fall from the wall but they aren't really made for that.
FWIW
Joe