Wings on an underpinner?

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gavinr
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Wings on an underpinner?

Post by gavinr »

I’m just starting out on my framing journey and am spending my days learning to make frames and as I venture into larger ones I’m beginning to wonder if I need to buy, or make, some wings for the minigraff 44 that I have?

Does anyone have any views on them, are they worth the money?

I’ve got a large frame to make for myself next week and I can’t see that I’m going to be able to handle the moulding on my own, what do people do in this scenario… rope in an extra pair of hands, use some form of support (I have a roller support I could try) or do I need wings?
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Re: Wings on an underpinner?

Post by Not your average framer »

I have a bench which is the same height as my under pinner. As i can probably imagine a bench extends further that the support that a pair of wings will probaly do so. Added to that, having the underpinner standing against the edge of the bench usually saves precious workshop space. I like my bench to be that Height so that I can side full sheets of mount board in to vertical slots under the bench. This is the way, which I have always done it, for about 20 years and it makes life quite easy for me!
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Re: Wings on an underpinner?

Post by Rainbow »

The solution might depend on knowing how large is large, and what's the largest frame you're likely to make.
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Re: Wings on an underpinner?

Post by Not your average framer »

I haven't got a very big workshop, so above a certain size is just is not very helpful to me. I also have limit on what finished frame sizes I can easily store as well. Anything bigger that 5 feet in any direction is probably a problem for me. Having had a stroke and not walking very well, anything which is too heavy for me is likely to be more than it can safely carry. Since the bench is the same height as the underpinner and I have a huge collection of woodworking clamps, if the bench is a little smaller than what I need to join, I can always clamp the frame to the edges of the bench. I also have a quite a lot of clamping squares and can even clamp all the corner in position, before needing to manuver the frame into position to be able to use the underpinner. From time to time, I get asked to produce some really crazy sized pine stacked moulding frames and these don't always get assembled on the underpinner at all.

My Morso cannot measure more that 1.5 metres any way, so anything more than 1.5 metres gets a bit difficult for me to cut anyway. Customers around here almost never want me to frame anything that big anyway! I usually don't like to be using glass which is more the the standard 3 foot by 4 foot sheets. I already know that I cannot lift the 6 foot by 8 foot sheets of 4mm glass, as I am not strong enough since having had my stroke. How are you going to join anything that big using add on wings of your underpinner? A big bench is what most framers rely on who regularly produce really large frames. There is a framer about a hundred miles frome me who regularly does big frames for the publicity and hotel businesses. He has a bench made up from two 8 foot by 4 sheets of thick MDF, so that's 8 foot square. I don't think he's even had to do anything that big ever. most of the very big stuff is prepared and transported to be assembled on site. There are practical limits to how big a frame will go through the front door in to a hotel!

There is a hotel in Exeter which has a framed painting about 6 foot square and that's easily the bigest frame that I have ever seen anywhere. What sort of size frames are talking about joining. At some point normal underpinner wedges are not going to be strong enough for really massively oversized frames.
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Chris_h
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Re: Wings on an underpinner?

Post by Chris_h »

I have the underpinner at the same height as the workbench. I still keep a gap between the two to stand as I prefer to pin from the front. The workbench then supports any larger frames.
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Re: Wings on an underpinner?

Post by Not your average framer »

There are times when I pull the underpinner away from the bench, if I need to doing larger frames, but I don't find it really ideal at all. I like to ratchet strap the underpinner to the bench to stop it moving about. I have some pieces of mountboard and backing board under the three legs of the underpinner to adjust it to be completely level and strapping it to the bench stops the pieces of board from sliding out from under the feet. I bought the ubderpinner from new, but for some strange reason the legs are not all exactly the same length.

I've got a Cassesse CS-88 and it's an underpinner which I like a lot, but the distributor block seem to have started jamming could offen as it's got older and I have to keep stripping it down and cleaning it out. It don't much like the Cassesse wedges as the 12mm and 15mm have a groove pressed in to them which seems to catch inside the distributor block and cause the jams. I like to refill the wedge cartidges with the Alphamacchine univrsally wedges and these hardly ever jam at all. Also the Alphamacchine power twist feature pull the mitre joints together much better than the Cassesse wedges!

The Alphamacchine wedges also produce much better results when I am stacking wedges and there are times when I will glue and stack to separate frames together and stack the wedges through one frame in to another to securely fix them together. Can you imagine how much trouble this causes when the Cassesse wedges won't stack properly inside the wood. When this happens, there's not much that you can do to remedy the situation.
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Re: Wings on an underpinner?

Post by vintage frames »

Just get someone to help you.

You'll only need the wings once in a blue moon.

Otherwise, they're really handy places to stand your cup of coffee.
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prospero
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Re: Wings on an underpinner?

Post by prospero »

I contrived a cunning installation for a CS-88. The space in my workshop is very limited so I cut a chunk out of a bench in the corner
a wedged it in. The left side run-out goes along a fixed board of the same height and I have a moveable support for the right side
which rests on the main bench. When I've finished I can take that away.
It's interesting that the CS-88 appears to have slots to locate 'wings' in, but no wings were ever made for it.

On my old Euro I used a metal easel (Simons) for support of the last two loose ends. :D
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Re: Wings on an underpinner?

Post by Not your average framer »

Euro made an underpinner where the wings were part of the underpinner and pointed upwards a sloping angle ange it sopported really large frames with only one operator needed.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
Not your average framer
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Re: Wings on an underpinner?

Post by Not your average framer »

Cutting the underpinner in to the corner of the bench was really popular at one time, very few seem to do it at all now.
Mark Lacey

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