Deep draft frames

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Camden Frames
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Deep draft frames

Post by Camden Frames »

Good Afternoon,
I need to frame some memorabilia for a friend and the distance from the glass to back is at least 25mm.
How do I support the glass in the frame?
I am sure there is a way but I just need a prompt.
Any thoughts would be appreciated?
Not your average framer
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Re: Deep draft frames

Post by Not your average framer »

A deep spacer is usually added behind the glass, as a liner to the inside of the frame. Alayer of mountboard and a backing board is often fix at the rear of the frame against the rear of the deep spacer to hold everything together.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
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Gesso&Bole
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Re: Deep draft frames

Post by Gesso&Bole »

You can buy wooden spacers (filets) from most suppliers, and even paper covered wooden spacers in white or black. These are then mitred and joined to create an inner frame that sits exactly inside the rebate of the outer frame.

The easier and possibly cheaper method is to create spacers with foam core or mountboard, and use a combination of ATG tape and PVA glue to secure them in place. These would be cut square and 'butt joined" at the corners
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prospero
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Re: Deep draft frames

Post by prospero »

*I've moved this as it's not really an Introduction*

The way to do foamcore/board spacers and get the corners tight is to "pinwheel" them.
Cut them square and slightly short. Place the first one but don't stick it. Push the second one
tight to the first and stick it. Third one ditto. Then push the first one tight to the third and stick it.

Difficult to explain, but you'll get the idea when you come to do it. :D
Watch Out. There's A Humphrey About
Not your average framer
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Re: Deep draft frames

Post by Not your average framer »

If you already make your own ready made frames a few ready made deep box frames, might be worthwhile. It's a particularly good way of using up unwanted left overs and off cuts. A large part of the secret in doing this is not to spend too much time in producing these. Simple, quick and easy, tends to be the golden rule when doing stuff like this. If you are a little bit quite after Christmas, it may be a good time to do some ready to sell stuff for your shop windows. If nothing else, it may help to relieve the boredom a little, if there is not much else to do at the time. I make mainly smaller box frames, as the left lovers and off cuts are mostly better suited to making smaller frames. Don't bother making anything, which does not look much more classy than the usually stuff in the cheap shops, as this end of the market is a waste of time.

My rational works something like this, my left overs and off cuts are already paid for from my waste allowance from making normal bespoke framing orders, so I count these off cuts and left overs as having cost me nothing. There's not much point in selling even relatively small ready made frames for anything less than say £15. So I it is going to sell for £15, I don't want to spend more than 15 minutes in total producing the frame. Many of these frames are hand finished, so the 15 minutes total time includes the hand finishing as well. This means very quickly applying the finish and drying the paint with a hot air gun to save time. In small batches, I allow two minutes to cut the size of the frame lengths to size, two minutes to join each frame, two minutes to fill any corner gaps and six minutes to hand finish and assmeble each frame, ready to sell.

Ready made frames are not even worth think about producing to sell for much less that £15 each and that would only be a relatively small frame for that price. It is worth being awere that not all ready made frames will sell particularlly quickly. Life does not always work like that, so I don't do discounts! It's just not worth doing at all. I get some off cuts which are only big enough for 5 inch by 5 ich frames, these are a waste of time selling as single frames and althouh I have not tyied this yet, I am planning to sell these is matching pairs of frames at least £17 per pair. Matching pairs are quite popular with customers, which is quite helpful. Blemished oak off cuts get made into rustic oak frames and knotty off cuts of pine moulding get made into rustic old style pine frames. A lot of the time my rustic frames are bought as soon as they are displayed for sale, I don't get vast amounts of knotty oak, or kotty pine moulding off cuts, so these rustic style frames are almost always in short supply.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
Not your average framer
Posts: 11014
Joined: Sat 25 Mar, 2006 8:40 pm
Location: Devon, U.K.
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Interests: Lost causes, saving and restoring old things, learning something every day
Location: Glorious Devon

Re: Deep draft frames

Post by Not your average framer »

I don't get many sales of smaller ready made frames in smaller profile mouldings. Larger sized ready made frames in smaller profile mouldings actually are quite a lot easier to sell. I'm guessing that using smaller profile mouldings, des not look like you are getting much for your money in smaller sized frames. Making smaller sized ready made frames, in deep box frame style mouldings generates much better sales and quite often it is using a cheaper moulding as well. I use a lot of my smaller profile mouldings to make stacked moulding profile frames and this at times can even be for use on some larger sized ready made frames. Making something look really special seems to be where it is at, even with ready made frames. Producing niche market style ready made frames is often a good way of selling items of otherwise dead stock at quite helpful prices.

A lot of the secret is in producing items, which are not seen elsewhere. There are still a reasonable number of customers, who want something distinctive and not remotely "mass market", or "run of the mill". Small old fashioned pine mirrors, complete with a shelf below the mirror tend to be quite popular with customers, who live in old fashioned cottages. As I have said before, it's almost impossible to sell anything pine which has been stained with antique pine wood stain. That look is to 1960's and 1970's, nobody wants it, it's really a waste of time trying to sell it. Grubby antique looking white washed finishes and the American "mission" style colouring are what seems to work well for me. Distressed black over a muted red base coat is always popular, especially for matching pairs of frames. Also distressed charcoal over suitable muted base colours, often work very well as well.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
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