The Framers Forum

Hi all. A customer has five 5" x 7" photographs she would like framing.

She would like 3 in one (large) frame, 1 in one (small) frame and 1 in one (small) frame. Sounds easy enough.

The difficulty is that she would like the two smaller frames with one photograph each attached to the larger frame with 3 photographs.

One small frame attached to the outside top left of the larger frame and one small frame attached to the outside bottom right of the larger frame.

I can see two ways to do this but are they the correct way.

1. Just attach each smaller frame to larger frame, but this would show a double thickness of moulding.
2. Attach each smaller frame on top of the moulding of the larger frame, but that would not good, would it?

Is there a third way.

Hope all makes sense.

Any help would be appreciated,

Thanks

Mainline mouldings do a system that may work depending on what frame style she wants

http://mainlinemouldings.com/index.php? ... goryID=787

To balance things, assuming the 3 in the same frame are in a triple aperture mount, you could adjust the adjoining mount widths to keep all of the photos the same distance apart.

The third way would be to make three separate frames and let the customer stick them on the wall together!

Don't people get some good ideas?

The simplest way is just to screw the frames together though the inside of the rebate.This will of course give
a double width where the frames join.

If it is a flat moulding you could make the two satellite frames with three sides like a [ and butt them up to the main
frame. Use small L mending plates to attach. One problem: The outside of the main frame doesn't have a rebate so a
bit of fiddly work with a router table called for. Or go 'old school' with a chisel.

Or.... Make a single frame using reversed mitres To make a sort-of cross shape so there is no bar. Essentially a single frame
with bits sticking out. The snag here is the glazing. Very tricky to cut glass with sharp internal angles. Not impossible, but
even if you did manage it, the glass would be very susceptible to cracking. Acrylic glazing would work better.

Im just thinking through this but could you construct a subframe arrangement from thin PAR stripwood of sufficient depth for the rebate you need, doubling the width where they join as Prospero says, the joins wouldn't have to be that neat and a few butt joins would be OK. then attach another flat fillet on top to cap it off and wide enough to make the lip. You'll need to cut the fillet twice at the places where there is a T formed and probably pin it in place with a headless Pinner. It sounds like the crazy sort of project I'd say yes too and then regret while I spend an age figuring it out! Now I've trout about that I'm going to go away and try to make a typtrich frame! A Sunday project.

How much does she want to spend ?
Not much I bet
Just make the 3 frames and let her hang them on the wall , give her some supa glue to stick them togther

Hi, some good ideas and food for thought.

I like the mainline system. I have a Morso and Mitre cutter but the Mitre cutter I have is not as accurate as I would like (it cuts the correct angle but tends to leave a slighly rounded edge as it addresses the moulding).
The moulding would suit as the customer would like a white, deep, flat moulding.

Balancing the mounts could also be a solution.

It may be possible for me to make the outerframes with 3 sides.

A sub frame may work, but will take a little bit of thinking about and may run a bit expensive.

The customer has not as yet informed me as to how much she would like to pay. She has only asked if it is possible to do. I have to let her know if it can be done and how much it will cost. She may walk away if it turns out to be too expensive but I don't feel it will have been a pointess exercise as it may be something to offer to other customers.Who knows.

Again, thanks for all your help.

Here's a similar but completely different dilema.

The customer wanted the shoe on the frame. To do this it would need a flat area about 5" wide.
Add to this a couple of inches for the inner/outer moulding and the liner and the whole design
would look daft.
So I decided to keep the panel at around 3" and add an extension. I cut three sides of the outer moulding and
fixed them on. Then carefully measured and cut the bottom rail pieces and shaved them to fit exactly.
Of course if you are hand-finishing it makes life easier as you can usually disguise any odd gaps and wotnot. Also,
You couldn't blend the flat extension piece with finished moulding.
A frame with internal corners is going to be fundamentally weaker than a normal one. You would probably need a substantial
back to beef it up.