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Splicing two boards?

Posted: Tue 07 Aug, 2018 11:07 am
by tebbles
I have to frame a 6ft x 6ft piece and need to join two mount boards together for the backing, what's best way to do this?

Re: Splicing two boards?

Posted: Tue 07 Aug, 2018 12:21 pm
by Steve N
What do you mean by the backing, if you mean just to back the artwork and will not be seen, for something that size I would be looking at using 3- 5mm foamcore, 2 layers, butt joined (taped) to make up the size, and turns 90 degrees to each other and glued, to form a ply of foamcore, lightweight and sturdy

Re: Splicing two boards?

Posted: Tue 07 Aug, 2018 12:33 pm
by tebbles
Image will be floating on foam core, then a 5cm border so will see the mount behind

Re: Splicing two boards?

Posted: Tue 07 Aug, 2018 1:07 pm
by David McCormack
At that size (6x6ft) with a 5cm border nobody is going to notice your joins! Do as Steve suggests and make a suitable backing and then glue in place several pieces of mount-board around the edges approx 10cm wide. Butt them up to each other with a bevel cut rather than a 90 degree cut.

That's a massive frame, what sort of glazing are you using?! :sweating:

Re: Splicing two boards?

Posted: Tue 07 Aug, 2018 4:30 pm
by Not your average framer
The timing of this subject is quite interesting as I was thinking about asking a related question. I quite often get my local hardware shop to cut 6mm MDF for larger frames, but I really would prefer to have something in stock which I can use straightaway without the delay while they get the time to cut the boards for me.

I don't mind using MDF if I have to, as I have a large roll of Mylar and usually use alkaline buffered mountboard between the artwork and the back. When customers choose a shallow rebate on a smaller frame and want a double mount, I sometimes have to use a conservation backing board which has it's own built in barrier board, due to lack of available rebate depth. When using the MDF i just add the Mylar between the MDF and the mountboard as well. Personally, I would prefer alumimium foil, but the only aluminium foil I can get is not only a bit narrow and it's hard to keep in place inside the frame, So Mylar is easier to work with.

There are occassions when I laminate two layers of 5mm foam board and when I do this I try to make the join in different places for the two layers. It is nice to make a vertical join in one layer and a vertical join in the other, but in my experience this is not usually the way that things work out.

I've not really understood why we can't buy jumbo size backing board like we can in some mountboards. I still miss the CombCor backing board that I used to get from Brittania Mounts, which was not oversized, but was very solid and 5mm thick. I also still miss the Conservatek backing board, which I always regarded as the best backing board I had ever used.