The Framers Forum

A customer wants to frame a piece 250cm x106cm. Would it need to be 3mm glass. Would it be too heavy. or should I suggest acrylic. if so which one.
Thank you

The glass on its own will weigh over 40lbs acrylic all the way.

Problem is, acrylic that size would need to be at least 6mm, which would make it heavy - maybe as heavy as 3mm glass.

Abacus wrote: ↑Sat 11 Jul, 2020 5:54 pm The glass on its own will weigh over 40lbs acrylic all the way.

That's about half the weight of my greyhound, so bloody heavy
What you will have to think about is just trying to turn it over to clean the glass, some one emailed me this week for a quote for a 140cm x 200cm picture, I declined as it's bigger than my bench and because I'm on my own, I would not be able life it when finished

My shop's standard was anything that was over 40" x 60" (approx. 100 c x 150 cm) was automatically acrylic (Plexiglass® or Perspex®).

This decision was based on safety for both my staff and the end user. Weight was not a factor.

My main shop area had 2 48" x 96" tables and we had many jobs over the years that required more than one person for handle the frame package. A quick tip for handling large frames is to place a carpet r eminent along the edge of the table and pivot the frame over the edge, onto the floor. We would then rotate the frame (front to back) and then lift the frame back onto the table using the edge of the table as a fulcrum. You use mechanical leverage vs your back do the lifting.

JFeig wrote
"
My main shop area had 2 48" x 96" tables and we had many jobs over the years that required more than one person for handle the frame package. A quick tip for handling large frames is to place a carpet r eminent along the edge of the table and pivot the frame over the edge, onto the floor. We would then rotate the frame (front to back) and then lift the frame back onto the table using the edge of the table as a fulcrum. You use mechanical leverage vs your back do the lifting."

That's how I do it now, always have done Jerome, but if you are a 'one man business' there is a limit to what can be achieved my yourself

In the day, I could handle a 40" x 60" frame job single handed using the edge fulcrum method. Today, due to back issues, not so much.

I am thinking that the frame will need to be strong enough to support the glass, to an adequate level as well. Deciding how strong is strong enough, is either a matter of experience, or educated guesswork. A really solid sub frame with several cross member and well braced corners might be a good start. Sorry to disappoint you, but it's not just the weight of the glass, or perspex, that going to be heavy, but it will be probably at least as much for the frame as well. Prospero has provided an excellent post showing quite an intelegent way of making large sub frames. This not going to be an easy job to be doing if you are a work force of only one. Working out a price for a job of this size is not easy either. Getting the quoted price wrong on the low side, will not only mean losing money, but also doing all the hard work for nothing as well.

I hope that you have thought long and hard about how you are going to make an adequate frame of that size! Just joining the corners on an underpiiner might not be strong enough. Maybe some of those hidden bolt together joiners, which are used to join sections of kitchen work tops might be worth considering. If you are going down that route, you will need to make sure that the size of the moulding are large enough to accommodate such fittings. Personally, it's not a job that I would want. Not only do I have a workshop of limited size, but the job would probably be more than I would want to take on. While you are considering how to price a job like this, don't forget to take into account, how much money you could be making doing the usual workload of smaller jobs and how many other customers might not be wanting to wait, while you finish this job.

Think about the consequences of what it means if you take it on, in terms of loss of income while it is blocking up you workshop, but also the consequences of what it means if you don't take it on. I took on framing something very large, on the understand that the customer would come and collect it and pay for it the moment it was finished, but he kept me waiting about six weeks, during which time I had no where to store the frame, so that I could use the workshop to do other jobs. I lost plenty of other work, during that six weeks. Not much fun!

Steve N wrote: ↑Sun 12 Jul, 2020 11:16 am That's about half the weight of my greyhound, so bloody heavy
What you will have to think about is just trying to turn it over to clean the glass, some one emailed me this week for a quote for a 140cm x 200cm picture, I declined as it's bigger than my bench and because I'm on my own, I would not be able life it when finished

I believe that's a bit of long-forgotten Cockney slang, Steve.....like a 'Pony' or a 'Monkey'. As in "It'll cost you half a greyhound, plus VAT".

cleaver wrote: ↑Sun 12 Jul, 2020 2:43 pm I believe that's a bit of long-forgotten Cockney slang, Steve.....like a 'Pony' or a 'Monkey'. As in "It'll cost you half a greyhound, plus VAT".