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My wife puts up with an aweful lot with me building guitars and spending all kinds of money on tools. This weekend she asks me to cut a picture frame out of some nice oak frame molding, and for the life of me I can't get a perfect mitre cut. I have tried both my power compound mitre saw as well as my table saw, and while they're close, everytime I try to glue it up with 4 corner clamps, I can't seem to get a perfect square fit. Does anybody have any tips on how to get a perfect square frame? My wife will never believe I can build a guitar but can't cut a square frame. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

John

Actually, that's one of the hardest things to do. Most picture framers who cut mitres use a slicer thing that looks a little like a sideways guilotine, which is set at a perfect 45 degree angle. It's very hard to do without a perfect 45 deg setup. Precision is everything, and then once you get the angle dead-on, you have to get the lengths of the sides exact. Good luck!

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Howdy John,

Also, some molding does not have a flat back. so when you flip it around to cut the other end, it tips the OTHER way and well, you know the rest.

I cut them on my tablesaw and have always had good success. I use a drafting 45* square to set the angle on my miter gage relative to the blade. I also rip the frames wide enough to allow installion of a small bisquit in the joint.

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

John, I have 2 sets of framing clamps, neither set will hold a frame square. You may want to check to see if yours are square. Mine are not the better of the clamping world though. One set is craftsman and I don't remember what the other is.

Before I had a Glider saw ( a long gone printers sliding table saw designed
for trimming old fashioned lead type blocks), I did the final fit with a
shooting board and a plane.
-C

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