Glue-up Assembly Sequence

[Joe O'Leary]

I’m assembling a mirror frame, mitered corners with splines (all same wood and finish). Finish will be two dyes under a pigment stain. I would like to do the staining and dyeing pre-assembly for ease and to minimize squeeze-out, but I need the frame assembled to cut the spline slots. Any ideas other than assemble, then finish?:confused:

Joe

[Barry Vabeach]

Joe, if the splines are going to be on the top of the mirror and the bottom of the mirror, I doubt they will be noticed by most, so if you want to dye and stain first do it, then glue and assemble, then cut the slots and insert the splines and touch up the splines with the dye and stains using an artist brush. You should be able to get it pretty close, then apply a toning coat of finish, no one will ever notice. Barry

[Peter Quinn]

Sounds like dicey business trying to pre-finish parts for a mitered frame into which splines will be later cut. You will have to count on zero chip out and perfectly aligned miters as sanding must be kept to a minimum to avoid sanding through the stain or dye. And you will have to trim your spline keys very gingerly to avoid the same problem. I suppose with creative cover up you could hide most things, but my thinking is why build problems into an assembly that must be over come later?

Are the splines visible, meaning will they be cut from the outside of the miter? That is my understanding of your description. Can you cut the keys on the blind side, to the inside of the miter, centered on the glass rabbit, so they can be fitted without being seen and will not require cutting into the visible outer edge of the molding? This is a perfect application for biscuits if you have a biscuit jointer, or a dovetail key to the back side if you have a router. I have used #20 biscuits, aligned the on narrow frames so any length of biscuit beyond the miter length went into the glass rabbit and trimmed this off with a chisel after glue up. Gives you a stronger connection than a FF biscuit and is invisible. A slot cutter on the router table or a kerf on the TS with a quick miter jig referencing off the rip fence also makes this possible.

You could make a jig to place dovetail keys into the back side on the router table also. Or a small floating tenon (domino cut or plunge router) could secure the miters.

I do not understand your apprehension to assemble the frame and finish later post assembly, nor do I perceive the gain in pre-finishing the mirror frame parts.

[Frank Drew]

Joe,

Without saying that it couldn't work your way, I'd recommend build, sand, then apply the finish, for the reasons Peter gives.

[Lee Schierer]

You can do what you want with a few precautions. Do a dry fit up and make sure everything fits perfectly. Dye your pieces. Then before assembly cover the edges of the joint with masking tape. Get the tape as close to the edge as you can get it. Then glue up the assembly. When the glue is dry, carefully peel up the tape. The glue squeeze out will either come off or be left sticking up from the surface where it can be trimmed off with a sharp chisel and a little care. Then cove the area for the splines with tape before you cut. Make your cuts and glue in the splines. Then once the splines and glue are cleaned up stain the exposed area of the spline. Peel off the tape and complete teh finishing.

[Joe O'Leary]

Thanks for the great responses. I used my miter sled and the miters are perfect. I'll just assemble, cut the splines with my spline jig, then finish.

Thanks for the advice!

Joe