Clamps for mitered picture frames and such.

[dbhost]

I am needing to clamp up mitered frame picture frames and door panels. I saw how MLCS does it with their Merle Multi Clamp, which is nice as it applies pressure all the way around while keeping the corners in place... But I was wondering, there seem to be a mess of different band clamps like that, but which ones will work for what I want them for? Can you folks clue me in to which clamps I need?

[shoottx]

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=42863

Or use a piece of plywood and build a clamp center!

[dbhost]

Nice, I guess I should have used the search feature before asking... Not sure how I don't recall that thread...

[poolhound]

DB, I made a picture frame clamping system about a month ago. Check out this thread.

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...e+clamp&page=2

[poolhound]

Sorry, I just noticed that Mike pointed you to the same place

[dbhost]

No worries. Yeah I saw that when he pointed me there. Nice work...

How well does it work for keeping things square?

[poolhound]

How well does it work for keeping things square?

Technically a properly cut miter will automatically square the joint so the key to any picture frame is 100% accurate cuts. That means dead on 45 degrees and each opposing side should be identical in length. If you use a properly setup miter sled and stop blocks then you should be good to go.

The miter/frame clamp is simply there to keep the joints together while the glue dries. If you think about it a web clamp has absolutly zero effect on squaring it simply provides uniform external pressure.

All I can tell you is that the frames I made ended up perfectly square.

[dbhost]

Gotcha,

And no, no miter sled. CMS instead... Double and triple check with a right angle square, 45 deg is 45 deg for sure, I can close all 4 corners up tight and square on my test pieces...

[drumpriest]

I don't do it that often, but I use a strap clamp and some bar clamps, works fine. Remember you just need good contact for glue to work, overclamping in a setup like mine would probably result in squareness issues, but I've done fine thus far.

I use these jigs to make my frames, and splines for strength..

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=40592

[cabinetman]

Niki has a good tutorial here for cutting frames.
.

[SARGE..g-47]

Gotcha,

And no, no miter sled. CMS instead... Double and triple check with a right angle square, 45 deg is 45 deg for sure, I can close all 4 corners up tight and square on my test pieces...

I have a SCMS that is dead accurate with 45*. But.. refer tp Poolhound's post #7 on the opposing sides must be absolutely the same to get an extremely tight miter mate. I found I could not do that with precision on my SCMS as setting up stops on it's fence is a PITA and sometimes just not possible at all.

So.. I invested in the Incra V27 miter guage which it the cheap version of the various Incra gauages. I added a sacrificial fence of wood and can clamp proper 45* stop blocks on it to assure accuracy. The Incra has the best slop adjustment on it's miter bar I have seen leading to dupicating very accurate lenghts after setting the TS blade to dead 45*.

That LV clamp looks good for a narrow miter glue up but.. refer to drumpriest's post on not a lot of pressure is needed. Only enough to pull it tight and hold while the glue dries. For that I use packaging tape to mesh the corners.. then add glue.. fold it up and wrap more tape around the outside to complete the square or rectangle.

On something larger as 8 29" long quadlinear legs I am currenting doing, I use packaging tape on the outside to mesh the corners before glue.. add glue.. fold it up as before... but at that point wrap the leg with Surgical Tubing which streches slightly but applies a death grip that will close the entire 29" of miter tight leaving no line visible.

BTW.. if you do get a slight gap... burnish it over and it will hide the gap in most cases.....

Good luck....

[poolhound]

[QUOTE=SARGE..g-47;393329]I have a SCMS that is dead accurate with 45*. But.. refer tp Poolhound's post #7 on the opposing sides must be absolutely the same to get an extremely tight miter mate. I found I could not do that with precision on my SCMS as setting up stops on it's fence is a PITA and sometimes just not possible at all.

QUOTE]

I had the same issues with my CMS, thats why I built this miter sled.

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=41819

The advantage is that as long as the fence is a perfect 90 even if each side is not dead on 45 whne you cut the mating joint on each side of the fence its always going to end up with a 90 degree corner.

For longer pieces I add a fence extension for stop blocks.