My friend and coworker has her last day at our office this Friday. She gave me 3 years notice when her future (now) husband (also an ex-coworker) moved to Colorado for pharmacy school. She's going to work remotely for me but it won't be the same in many ways. We've worked together for 8 years now. We live outside the DC metro area, and to my surprise, she never made it downtown to see the cherry blossoms in bloom at the tidal basin. I know she always wanted to but just didn't get around to it. She also knows I'm a woodworker but she never seriously approached me about making anything for her except to cut a piece of wood here or borrow a tool there.
Anyway, I put myself in charge of planning her going away and collected money for presents and a party, but I wanted to make her something as my gift to her. I decided on a picture frame to remind her of her time here.
I milled up some cherry (I thought it was appropriate because of the theme) and cut a groove with my TS blade. I glued in a strip of walnut to add some contrast. I also cut the rabbet on the back using the TS. I cut the walnut strip down close on the TS and leveled it on the planer.
I wanted to bevel the face but wasn't too happy with the cleaness of the bevel cut on the TS. I suppose I could have used a handplane, but I decided to make my first planer sled. I cut a 15deg wedge on the BS to match the bevel angle of the frame.
I secured some guides to my planer bed and ran the boards through. Worked really well.
I snapped those pics after the fact. The Domino slots were cut after I ran everything through the planer and mitered the corners using my miter sled. The Domino did a great job aligning the parts. The miters weren't perfect but close enough. With enough clamping pressure, I closed the gaps.
After hand sanding and scraping, I used rattle can lacquer to finish the frame and rubbed it out with steel wool and wax to give a smooth finish. I found the picture (8x12) using a Google image search. There are a few photogs who sell their prints through SmugMug for a reasonable price. I bought the precut anti-glare plexi from HD. The back is covered with a kraft paper dust cover which I think gives it a clean look (even though you won't see the back).
I'm going to leave the frame flat on the table overnight since the kraft paper was rolled. Then I'm going to nail on the saw tooth hanger. It'll get presented on Thursday at her farewell party.
Paul
Anyway, I put myself in charge of planning her going away and collected money for presents and a party, but I wanted to make her something as my gift to her. I decided on a picture frame to remind her of her time here.
I milled up some cherry (I thought it was appropriate because of the theme) and cut a groove with my TS blade. I glued in a strip of walnut to add some contrast. I also cut the rabbet on the back using the TS. I cut the walnut strip down close on the TS and leveled it on the planer.
I wanted to bevel the face but wasn't too happy with the cleaness of the bevel cut on the TS. I suppose I could have used a handplane, but I decided to make my first planer sled. I cut a 15deg wedge on the BS to match the bevel angle of the frame.
I secured some guides to my planer bed and ran the boards through. Worked really well.
I snapped those pics after the fact. The Domino slots were cut after I ran everything through the planer and mitered the corners using my miter sled. The Domino did a great job aligning the parts. The miters weren't perfect but close enough. With enough clamping pressure, I closed the gaps.
After hand sanding and scraping, I used rattle can lacquer to finish the frame and rubbed it out with steel wool and wax to give a smooth finish. I found the picture (8x12) using a Google image search. There are a few photogs who sell their prints through SmugMug for a reasonable price. I bought the precut anti-glare plexi from HD. The back is covered with a kraft paper dust cover which I think gives it a clean look (even though you won't see the back).
I'm going to leave the frame flat on the table overnight since the kraft paper was rolled. Then I'm going to nail on the saw tooth hanger. It'll get presented on Thursday at her farewell party.
Paul
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