The Framers Forum

Be careful.

Friday the 13th comes on a Sunday next month.

I have to echo others in praise of the FilletMaster. It is a bit pricey, but it will pay for itself very quickly. Before I got one, I used to dread trying to cut those stupid interior miters. With the FilletMaster, once you’ve got it calibrated, you will get dead bang, perfect cuts without ever havi...

Don’t worry ‘bout this Gainsborough character. His stuff will never catch on.

For removing gunky adhesive residue, we often use Naphtha – commercially available cigarette lighter fluid. I imagine it might depend upon the variety of paint from which you’re trying to remove the tape, but it works pretty well with the standard polyurethane finished wood we see in picture frame m...

I had vowed to carry this secret to the grave, but now with this newly discovered forum out of country, so to speak, I feel that confession should cleanse my soul. (I still have recurring dreams of angry peasants with pitchforks and flaming torches demanding that I be drawn and quartered.) About 20 ...

Rather than individual “wheelie bins” we have a commercial “dumpster” which sits behind our shop. It serves the five other tenants of the building so it has a reasonably large capacity that demands that it only be emptied once every two weeks or so. A few years ago in the middle of July, one of the ...

We avoid MDF for several reasons: Unless you seal it, MDF can warp easily. They use formaldehyde in manufacturing – not only is it carcinogenic, but it gives me an incredible headache. It is considerably heavier than a comparable plywood. If you get it slightly wet, it can crumble. We look upon it a...

Two of my tables used primarily for fitting are covered with an inexpensive, nylon carpet (remnants from a going out of business sale). The pile is about 1 cm deep, so that debris tends to sink to the bottom of it and reduces the possibility of scratching the frame when I slide it. When the mood sui...

Absotively, positutely, NO beverage containers in the work area!

On this side of the Atlantic, we are discouraged from adding picture glass to the recycle bin.

Some nonsense about the stuff we use containing lead, brain damage, and kids becoming babbling idiots. I figure that some people are simply destined to become hatters when they grow up.

What Heather may be referring to as a “V” hinge is sometimes called a “T” hinge. When called upon, I usually use a linen backed, water released tape. Ideally the tape should be weaker than the art it supports, but that is not always possible. Not wishing to hedge, but the number and position of the ...

This may seem like a very odd suggestion, but if there is a teaching hospital near you, check them out. When we first opened, money was tight. At the suggestion of a friend, I contacted the materials management department of a hospital in Boston. I was able to grab myself a set of drawers that had p...

Merlin Framers wrote:Next we will have a Welsh male voice choir singing at us......

… then you know it's time to tranquilize the cats!

Weather’s getting better, but it’s still in the 40° F. range (~ 4° C., if I’ve done the math correctly) with a little snow still on the ground. We don’t have any Welch Male Choirs that I know of. But, there is a kid in the neighborhood who practices his bagpipes every evening. I’ve heard that the so...

kev@frames wrote:Hi Bill
Its enough to drive a man to drink.

So, there is an upside, it seems.

Tru-Vue (in this part of the world) offers a framed display which contains three vertical strips of differing glass – Regular, etched non-glare, and Museum (or, maybe, just their AR variety). The display has a triple mat (to exaggerate the blurring of the non-glare) over a cheesy, very contrasty pos...

Hello Bill, nice to see you here, So, anyway, if you don't have sales or income tax in New Hampshire, how exactly DO you get screwed??? Property taxes! We pay a bit more than the national average, BUT the State of New Hampshire has a laissez-faire attitude for most things (Don’t want to wear a seat...

My name is Bill Henry. For twenty-two years, I have owned and operated a small, independent frame shop in Litchfield, New Hampshire, U.S.A., and am a frequent contributor to The Grumble - America’s equivalent to this, The Framer’s Forum. Some of you guys are known to me like John Turner (Roboframer)...