The Framers Forum

I know there are circular/oval mount cutters out there but the ones I have seen are:

1. too small
2. take up a lot of storage space

since I only want to cut circular apertures up to around 70cm diameter how reasonable is it to make one. I recently bought a silberschnitt circular glass cutter ( I decided not to buy the cheap chinese version ) and I am cutting glass fine with it.

My idea is to make a head that fits the bar to cut circles in the mount with.

One problem I am anticipating is that variable pressure applied during the cut would cause the depth (and therefore diameter) to vary during the cut. i thought I might be able to mitigate this by cutting on a self healing cutting mat as they provide resistance when cut upon. Obviously there is the danger of the centre slipping whilst cutting, can anyone see any other potential pitfalls if I cobble together a 45deg (ish) mount for the rotating rod?

Or should I just find someone with a computer mount cutter?

Buy one of the Logan/ Fletcher hand that are too small,
https://www.lionpic.co.uk/p/7978/Logan- ... unt-Cutter
https://www.lionpic.co.uk/p/8846/Fletch ... cle-Cutter

then you can see how they work, as you gradually feed the blade into the mount as you turn it, normally take about 3 revolutions to cut a circle / oval. So you might be able to adapt a Logan / Fletcher to take a longer arm on and fit the original arm and blade holder on
Or get a hand mount cutter, stick it on a long bit of wood, then nail the wood and mount onto your work bench and cut the mount

Good ideas, I have a few handheld matter cutters kicking around. first I will try one of those, if that doesn't work (I am slightly suspecting it may scuf/mark the mount) will invest in one of those cutters that you linked to.

Many thanks

Cut it face down. I've done it in the past ( 1st time ,nearly 30 years ago) when I needed to cut a large oval window, just used two nails and a length of string tied to form a circle with a pencil , to mark out the oval, then cut the window with a hand cutter, following the lines easy job done

Here is how to do it http://www.thisiscarpentry.com/2013/09/ ... ng-method/

Do you have a local framer near by with a CMC? That's the easy option - outsource it!

When I started I used the same method as Steve N. as he said that's the easy part

Cutting the glass comes next How I did it was to; draw the shape on the glass with a felt tip pen or some such and using a good quality glass cutter PUSH the cutter around the mark. That way you can be more precise. After you have scored the circle/oval score more lines radiating from the circle/oval and gently tap the lines with the cutter from underneath to open the cut and ease the pieces away from the piece you require.

Job done and in house

It's one of those jobs that is easier to demonstrate than explain in words but I assure you with a little practice it's no problem.

Peter

I've seen some amazing examples of mounts cut by bygone framers who obviously cut mounts by hand, because mountcuuters did not exist that long ago. If we did not have mountcutters at our disposal in the days we live in, we would all have to learn how to do this the hard way. I was trained at Triton Galleries in Torquay by an older framer who could still do mount cutting by hand.

I like to think that most of us, could learn how to do this if we needed to and in time I think that we would get to the same high standards.