Making your own moulding.

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neilsgti16v2
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Making your own moulding.

Post by neilsgti16v2 »

What experiences have others had with making their own moulding please? I assume it's not cost effective getting the finish right and space required for the extra machinery but it appeals to me, so previous experience would really help, thanks.
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prospero
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Re: Making your own moulding.

Post by prospero »

If you have the space you can make mouldings. Some profiles would need quite industrial scale machinery, but it's
amazing what you can do with quite modest equipment. I had always assumed that cutting large scoops was beyond
the 'little guy' but there was a recent topic which revealed you can do them on a quite small table saw. Of course,
saying something is possible doesn't mean it's always feasible.
I often take existing plain mouldings and modify them on a router table. Also combine mouldings to build up large sections.
I've only made one moulding from scratch. It turned out well, but it was a driftwood type of finish so any rough bits were all
to the good. There's also the matter of finding a source of good timber.

It depends a lot on just what sort of frames you want to make. Manufacturing 1/2" square black cushion doesn't make sense
economically. Bigger stuff is more of a practical proposition.

As for finishing, some finishes are quick and easy. Some need a lot of stages and a lot of sanding. :D
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Re: Making your own moulding.

Post by Not your average framer »

Getting a good finish is not always down to spending lots of money on machinery and tools. Simple tools like cabinet makers scrapers will often smooth down a not quite perfect finish relatively quickly after the more basic level machinery has done it's job.

If any of the forums members are considering purchasing any machine tools to undertake things like this, there are quite a number of existing members who have been making their own mouldings at various levels and probably will be able to save you from making the wrong moves by offering sound advice.

Prosperro and myself speak to each other quite regularly and as a result, I'm sure that Prosperro won't mind me telling you that he has produced quite a bit of very respectable work, using a relatively small and inexpensive table saw. Often it's not the expensive equipment that makes things possible, but knowing how to use what you bought on a lower budget most effectively.

Have a look at this thread where Prosperro shows us what is possible with a relatively basic table saw:

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7415&p=62451&hilit ... aw+#p62451

This thread was what inspired me to get into buying some woodworking machinery myself. You can do a surprising amount of very respectable looking workmanship with a relatively limited set up and on a low budget as well. Before anyone says it, I'm not saying that the better quality equipment is not worth buying, but some of us have manage on a more restricted budget.
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prospero
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Re: Making your own moulding.

Post by prospero »

:D My "Battenberg" moulding. :lol:

Stuff like that comes into play when you just can't buy something in the length. And if you could you would struggle to cut it.
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Re: Making your own moulding.

Post by vintage frames »

I make all my own mouldings. It's very satisfying and I get exactly the sort of profile I want. The customers I have use me because I can give them the sort of frame they were looking for. All of them are art dealers/galleries and collectors. Whether this would be of any interest to the general public - I don't know but if I did have a framing shop I would take NYAF's advice ( see RMF posting re. too much choice ) and offer a very well edited selection of simple but interesting hand finished samples. A wall of chevrons - nooo!
The best way of producing your own mouldings is to build up the business in stages. Like Prospero, buy a table-saw and start altering the ready supply of bare-wood mouldings already available. Then perhaps a router and table to tweak things a bit further.
The next step is a spindle-moulder and with this you can create an infinite pattern of profiles. How you finish your frames is then a whole other subject.
Or, of course, you could set aside all these machinery costs and invest in having profiles milled for you. On very large runs that can sometimes make more sense.
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Re: Making your own moulding.

Post by Not your average framer »

Are you proposing to make up your own mouldings in quantity for multiple framing jobs, or small quantities for individual customer requirements. The reason I ask is because how you go about things may well be somewhat different. I get asked once in a while if I can copy an existing frame, so that the new artwork will be framed to be displayed alongside an existing artwork and frame. When I do this, it's often adapting existing mouldings, or using other mouldings as a source of material.

Buying small quantities of some woods is not always very economical to do. I don't particularly do very much of this, but I generally buy barewood obeche, tulipwood and limewood as picture frame mouldings and machine them to create the profile I want. I cannot say that my machining techniques, or capabilities are particularly extensive, as I tend to be more adaptive than creating from scratch in this respect. I will use pine mouldings if I have to, but it's a lot easier to get a good finish on the woods I have already mentioned, using the range of machine tools that I have.

I'm really comfortable slicing up existing moulding profiles and mixing and matching various different bits to create the new profile that I want. Sorry to disappoint those who were expecting something more sophisticated, but I'm more the cut and glue the bits together approach myself and the big advantage with this is not having to possess extensive machining facilities, or having to purchase the materials I require from timber suppliers. All you need is a few catalogues showing different barewood moulding profiles and the ability to slice the different sections of the profile you need from your selection of mouldings.

More than a little of this was inspired from Prosperro's approach as demostrated in the link I supplied in my previous post in this current thread. If you need to produce your own mouldings in batch quantities, then you will be following the approach of machining everything as one moulding from basic non profiled timber. I dare say that the purists would say that my way of doing this is not particularly the technically correct way of doing things, but the customers are pleased with the results and it's what works for me. My table saw which has a 40 tooth 10" blade produces a surprisingly decent finish on woods like obeche, which I have to admit is much better than I expected, but pine is less so. I have a 60 tooth blade as well and must fit this to the saw when I have some spare time.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
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