The Framers Forum

Any tips on cutting spacers on a guillotine. After measuring the length I cut one end, its the other end I can't seem to get cut, I usually cut a bit longer then I still have to shave minute bits off to get them to fit in the frame rebate. Not always a success and tricky with a 6mm or 10mm spacer, used to support glass. Is there an easy one step method?

I know what you mean.

Easier to trim a bit off than trim a bit on.


Slightly different thing, but I do a lot of frames that comprise a 3" scoop with a 1" reeded moulding set on the inside.
Not under the rebate, but running along the sight-edge. To cut these, I use a saw and cut both sections at the same time.
To give a bit of easement I slip a piece of thin card at the end of the reed so that is maybe .5mm shorter than the length of
the rebate edge of the bigger moulding. My reasoning being that when joining the two elements, the inner frame will not be
too tight and will drop into the outer with a minimal gap all round. Sometimes it does. But more than half the time it's a bit off.
generally it has to be fettled with a bit of sanding and/or chiselling. I think kit's the nature of a mitre joint that amplifies any slight
variations in size. The corner may look perfectly aligned, but in actuality it may not be. So the rebate size is + in one axis and - in the other.

Still, a bit of filler covers a multitude of sins.

Ok I'm going to attempt to explain my method.

The spacers I use are 4mm wide (1288 by rose and hollis) So I set the measure on the morso to 4mm smaller than the glass size. Chop the spacer with the sight edge facing you. Then using a piece of spacer thats an inch or 2 long put it in one of the corners, with a bit of DS tape and a few dots of glue, place the first spacer in butted up to the short off cut, then put the rest in....

Basically you are just cutting another frame to fit inside another frame , just set the measuring stop on the right to '0' and if your frame is 50cm on the inside set the '0' to 50cm on the cutting scale, I normally set it a bit longer and trim it down to fit, I make my spacers a little bit sloppy , around 1mm smaller, but I join my spacer with 3mm under pins, so it drops straight in the frame, no gluing needed, only on larger frames

I do my spacers almost identically to Steve N except I don't go for a bit sloppy on the fit but rather an easy going slide in fit I also like to use wood spacers faced with mountboard to match the windowmount. I often strip the face paper of the board so it doesn't show under the glass. The wood spacers in the photo have just the face paper glued on (they're not for the frames in the photo!) Rose & Hollis do a good range of plain obeche spacers.

I'm the same as Louise's I'm on now. Top n bottoms first, so that if any problems later, the sides will hold the top in place.
I did try Steve N method a few times, but smallest wedges I have for underpinned are 7's which I managed to get to work but squeezed out/enlarged the corners too much.

That's meant to say Louisesimon...

louisesman wrote
"The spacers I use are 4mm wide (1288 by rose and hollis) So I set the measure on the morso to 4mm smaller than the glass size. Chop the spacer with the sight edge facing you. Then using a piece of spacer thats an inch or 2 long put it in one of the corners, with a bit of DS tape and a few dots of glue, place the first spacer in butted up to the short off cut, then put the rest in...."

I can't see why you mitre them the wrong way, can't see any advantage

The reason we join them as a normal frame, is that we make customers ready Made Frames, look so much neater and they can take out the spacer and clean the glass if they want to, even if we have done so already

SteveN I find that if you cut them as if making another small frame to slide in, you can't attach any DS tape and on larger frames sometimes the top rail sags down. It's a bit like you wouldn't chop the mountboard to be snug inside a frame because it's best if it has a bit of space to breath and fluctuate in size.

Also don't need to worry about chopping every spacer to a super accurate dimension. Most, if not all, rebates I use are 5mm leaving no room for inaccurate cuts.

Please call me Steve drop the 'N' we are among friends
Well I agree with not making them a snug fit, we like a slack fit, it's only on long ones you need to use D/sided tape, as we do, but only a small bit with couple of spots of wood glue either side of the tape, so when the tape fails, the glue will still hold it,
Each to their own, whatever suites your way of working, either way gets the job done

How do people strip the face paper of mount board, I've never had any success.

When the frame rebate isn't wide enough to hide the whitecore of the mountboard from showing under the glass, I strip the face paper off. The trick is not to try and remove just the face paper but also some of the layer underneath it too. It can look a little messy but that's ok.

I prefer to use wood spacers. I cut the spacers longer than needed and a strip of mountboard long enough and wide enough to glue all four spacers to it. Weight everything as the glue dries. Trim the spacers with a sharp knife and then trim on the morso to fit in the frame. I mitre my spacers as discussed above. The photos show a single spacer but I would always do four at a time. I did this spacer just for the photos so I cut the paper before the glue was dry so it looks a little rough and the mitres are on the wrong side

Nice one David

lovely demonstration, thank you.