The Framers Forum

Morning All

Does anyone know where I can buy lengths of MDF oak style moulding? 30mm wide preferably.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Paul

I expect that you will already realise that MDF mouldings have the imitation oak grain added by means of printed self adhesive paper. These mouldings are also commonly known as "paper wrapped mouldings". Well there are also paper wrapped mouldings, which instead of using MDF, use pine instead. If you can obtain these paper wrap pine mouldings instead, you will probably find that they are not only a lot more practical to work with, the price difference will probably by very much on a par with the MDF mouldings.

Customers have often brought items framed in paper wrapped MDF mouldings to me, because paper wrapped MDF mouldings don't stay in reasonable condition very long and they are not very durable either. The only sensible solution is to reframe them using something other than a MDF moulding. Sorry to be so blunt about this, but paper wrapped MDF mouldings are probably the worst quality option that there is when choosing picture frame mouldings.

Not only that, but if you think that using paper wrapped MDF is going to save you a worthwhile amount of money, you will need to be producing industrial quantities of frames to make any meaningful savings. It's also not an accident that so many of the ready made frames that you see in discount store have switched from paper wrapped MDF to polymer mouldings. It just makes so much more sense to do so in today's market. We are not just talking about most MDF based mouldings have out of date looking profiles, but also the visual appearance and the quality of the finishes.

I think that you would be wise to look at equivalent polymer mouldings at the same time as looking at the MDF ones. You might be surprised to find how the quantity prices and the quality compare.

If you are doing what's in the photos, which is oak veneer, over pine normally, then laser etched, I have done this in the past, works fine on veneer , but will not work on paper covered MDF, just burn the paper I would think

20mm version: https://mainlinemouldings.com/index.php ... ry=8202008

I've put a trial piece in the order you've just placed.

I would be difficult to say how laser etching is likely to work on a polymer moulding either.

Its not plastic

Finish: Wood Grain, Veneer
Species: Mdf

I know! I was just pointing out that the laser engraving might be no good on the polymer moulding that I mentioned before.

Sorry Mark, never read all your post, just skimmed it I'm afraid