Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
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Work was kicking my ass the last month. But that finally ended, so I got out to my workshop to finally frame a fun map I got.
The Algorithm thought I would be interest in Lord of the Maps, and I was. Purchased a nice map of my state around Father's Day. But I skimped on the frame. $70 for a frame? Fuck that, I can probably build one at least as good, right?
Took me a month to get around to it, but I eventually did. I didn't do anything too fancy. Milled down the red oak cause I had plenty on hand, I let it get out it's movement in my shop for about two weeks, but it actually didn't move any more. So I cut it to final dimensions. Put a slight 15 degree chamfer on the inside edge because I saw someone else do it and I liked it. Then I worked it with some aged barrel stain. I did also do some splines on the corners to reinforce the relatively weak glued miter joints.
A few things happened. My miter gauge must have been a fraction of a degree off, because the miter joints in aggregate opened ever so slightly towards the outside after I glued the whole thing up. So I guess I'll be recalibrating that. I calibrated it when I got it, but I suppose I didn't do a good enough job. The second thing that happened was the stain was slightly blotchy in a few places where I may have left it on too long. A lot of cleaned up well when I hit it with some mineral spirits, but some of it didn't. Oh well. Next time. In retrospect, I'm not sure I'm pleased with how the splines turned out either, and I might use small dowels next time.
The cost breakdown is insane compared to a store bought frame. I used probably $8 worth of red oak, the 16x20 glass pane was also $8. I used about $2 worth of hardboard for the backing, and then it used pennies worth of stain, glue and brad nails. So about $18 all told, versus $70 ish.
That's really nice! I need to work up a better 45 degree stop on my shooting board, that's the only way I get the angles just right.
Yeah frames are mostly labor/markup.
You know it was funny. After I made it, and it was so damned cheap and easy, I did a quick google of "Are custom picture frames a rip off". Almost universally the results were "Absolutely not, framing is super difficult and technical, and takes a very trained eye." Random posts on Reddit by professional framers justifying how the average person should not, under any circumstances, attempt to build their own frames.
The internet can be a strange place.
Tell me about it. I was supposed to sand some stairs. I had no idea what I was doing, so I looked on the internet, and they told me that the weight of the machine was sufficient, the machine will do the work. After about an hour of “sanding” the same step, barely moving my hand, sitting there uncomfortably, I realized almost nothing was happening, so …. I bought another sander for my other hand. And only an hour of double drifting later did it occur to me that I was doing it wrong.
To be fair the internet advice is usually more reliable, or I’m less of a dumbass idk.
I have to ask, what sort of sander were you using, with what grit sandpaper? Did you have any sort of dust extraction?
Cause I can totally see you sanding and sanding away with a palm sander, using 400 grit sandpaper, with nothing but the bag it comes with.
Like this, but older and smaller. Part of the reason why I didn't put any weight or movement on the thing is that the paper kept getting away from the clip in the beginning (I fixed it early, but by that point I'd internalized the lack of movement recommended by the internet). Then I bought a triangular one, still small.
All 40 sandpaper. My even earlier attempt at solving the problem was trying to find sandpaper with 2 grit or something, but 40 was as low as they went.
So, there are a few areas where sanding will go wonky on you. The first is you have shitty sandpaper that wears out too quickly. I recommend sticking with 3M sandpaper. The second is that the sandpaper clogs up. All those palm sanders have a slight suction effect, but attaching them to a dust extractor will have you humming along effortlessly for hours if need be. And with the specific type you linked, that has more of a vibration mechanism than a scraping mechanism, I find I have to move them just to get the dust out from under them. I use them as a last resort when they are the only tool that fits into the space.
And if you are removing a lot of paint, I'd recommend a scraper first, as I've found paint gums up sandpaper even faster than normal.
But I'm a relative layman.
Yeah it didn't have a sucker and the paper was generic. I think the paint or lacquer was extremely tough, or maybe you’re not supposed to get all the way down to just the wood? Anyway, once I treated the entire machine as if it was just inert sandpaper and used massive amounts of down and side force, it worked okay.
Yeah, if it were me, I'd have used some sort of solvent to remove the paint or lacquer. My wife actually used this orange based paint stripping stuff to take the paint off all the countertops in the kitchen. Worked amazing, and it took zero effort with a paint scrapper to remove the resulting goo.
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