The Framers Forum

Thanks for this.

I bought a second hand Futura, 48" I don't have a large studio. I think £500 (costs £1,770 new) is a fair price.

Thanks, JKX.

Will give a look at the "for sale" section.

I found a Keencut Futura for £500 in a good shape, i think i'll go for this – not that i have used many other cutters, but the Futura's action was incredibly smooth.

Dear Forum,

I did my learning course on a Keencut Futura and we were told that the Ultimate Gold or the Futura had the advantage of using super good ball bearing guides - that basically need little or no servicing. i have to say that working on the Futura felt like driving a Bentley.

What would ...

Thanks Prospero and Vintage Frames

Makes sense. I was planning to use a primer before painting, but the fine surface filler sounds a good first stage.

Thanks, JFeigh

I was also unsure about the spraying quality of airless airbrushes.

Need to buy my framing equipment so compressor also oprn up to a pneumatic underpinner as opposed to foot operated. Will take this into consideration. Thank you

Client wants a specific colour for their moulding.

What method and paint type would you recommend?

* My wife is a painter and says she could do it by hand with a brush.
* I was thinking getting a paint sprayer (without compressor) like e.g. Screenshot 2025-06-18 at 11.36.38.jpg but not sure how ...

@Prospero @Justintime,

Fabulous, detailed answers. Thanks a million, really. Learning stuff – and I now have a proper 5-day training course lined up.

Went to visit Wessex framing supplies and finally seen in the flesh how a subframe works. This is the first and hopefully last time I will show ...

Thanks for your input. There is an awful lot I need to learn.

Artwork is an old advertising poster on a thick-ish paper – really, the usual type of strong paper used for e.g. cinema posters of this 1000x600mm size. Problem is that client is hardly ever in London, took me ages for them to decide on ...

Again, newbie alert!

A client has a nice poster (print on paper) they want to protect using a TrueVue glass, low reflection and 70% UV protection. Was thinking 3mm thick as this is a larg-ish piece of glass.

Artwork is 1000x600mm, they don't want a mount. Glass would weigh 4.5kg/10lbs (with 3mm ...

Thanks, JFeifg,

Also a good solution, will see i I go for this or the spacers solution as the L shape is quite deep., so there would be no need to hide the spacers or the strainer.

Again, thank you for your help

Thanks Gemmie123,


Makes a lot of sense to use spacers rather than the solution I thought about (use a foam board and double side adhesive). Thin velcro is a fab idea for positioning and also making it easier to alter the frame at a later stage if need be.

Thanks a lot for this. I am learning ...

My wife was commissioned to create something similar to this painting:


L shape frame.jpg

She is working on it now, but she paints on a 7.5mm thick board.

Client likes the idea of a L frame with a shadow gap like the image above. Would of course be easy if the painting was on a canvas.

What ...

prospero wrote: Fri 07 Mar, 2025 2:11 pm Sometimes you have to abandon conventional thought when it comes to weighty frames.

I came up with this concept many years ago for mirrors....

Cor, this looks sturdy indeed. Sounds like an excellent option for the big mirrors. Thanks for showing me this layout

I have done just this... May even possibly frame it!

The idea of simply putting two wall hooks (I slap myself for not even thinking of it) is of course a much better solution to reduce the lateral force

Excellent ressource, and I like the simple "rule of thumb" calc.

As a beginner, I really ...

NTG999 wrote: Wed 05 Mar, 2025 7:25 pm I use quite a lot of these
https://www.lionpic.co.uk/p/42533/Ancho ... es-pack-50
Frame looks great

Thanks. I am going towards this simpler solution now.

Hi Justin,


Got these ones – except not the gold plated ones.

The frame is fairly wide. Would you see any advantage in positioning the strips sideways so they are (more or less) aligned with the traction from the hanging cable?

Thanks

Thanks for the pointers – and also apologies for the long delay in this reply, I forgot to click the "Notify me when a reply is posted" button.

So, no glueing the mirror to the back board, a good few points will secure the whole lot.

Here it is, 8 kg in total as the frame is heavy and minimum ...

Hi, Framers,


Thanks to friendly advice on this forum, my first framing efforts (a large tray frame for a canvas) were really rewarding.

So I am now commissioned by my best, most demanding and only customer (my wife) to make a quite large-ish mirror: glass size would be 1,000 x 1,000mm.

Quick ...

Hello Prospero, Pramsay13, Justintime, Vintage Frames,


Thank you for all your answers, super helpful.

I got the Stanley strap clamp (be it because the band from the Screwfix one was too short 4m in length, Stanley's was just the ticket for my frame). I like the Stanley's clamp, you can tension it ...

Newbie alert, pls don't shoot!

My wife is a good amateur painter, so I decided to frame her canvases.

I got myself a complete starter kit with a joiner. The L moulding I bought (chop service) is 54mm high, 42mm rebate, frame will be approx size 1020 mm x 1020.

Just realised that the 3/8th (approx ...