Making Box Frames

[Camden Frames]

As a Framer and mounter, I am looking for a moulding which will give me about 25mm space between glass and mount board. I am trying to frame some memorabilia. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Patrick Thomson, Camden Frames

[Justintime]

Rose and Hollis have loads of barewood mouldings that can be hand finished, which will easily give you 25mm.

[GeoffLittle]

Larson-Juhl do a FrameBox extension to generate more depth:
https://larsonjuhl.co.uk/mouldings/lars ... 3dframebox

[Not your average framer]

I used to buy bargain bundles of discontinued mouldings. There's still a few bits of these still here. Where the profile looks suitable, I cut these to the depth and thickness which I need and use them for spacers for lining deep box frames. Since I already have a table saw, it is a very quick thing to do. I've been deliberately doing things which are a bit different in a niche market kind of way, so producing deep box frames with nicely profiled spacers tend to fit what customers see as one of my specialities.

Many of my deep box frames don't have a mount in front of the spacers, so a rather stylish spacer really looks the part. I produce plenty of stacked moulding frames, using smaller profile moulding stacked together. Not all of these mouldings necessarily fit together without a little bit of cutting the mouldings to fit like they belong together, so left over bits cut from these smaller mouldings often get re-purposed to make spacers instead. I quite often will cut up stock mouldings only to make beepbox frame spacers only. Using the mouldings just to make spacers still makes financial good sense.

[Not your average framer]

Larson-Juhl do a FrameBox extension to generate more depth:
https://larsonjuhl.co.uk/mouldings/lars ... 3dframebox

I use an alternative for that. It Simons 000K / 0262, it does not have a rebate at both ends, but it is really narrow and a useful depth as well. Turn it on it's side to use it as a spacer. I trim it down to make smaller depth spacers using my bench top surface planning table. Done in almost no time at all. Simple, quick and easy!

https://djsimons.co.uk/product/flat-unf ... ered-edge/

[pramsay13]

25mm box frame is not particularly deep.
I use Centrado and they have either unfinished or black / white spacers at a range of thicknesses including 25mm. A frame of around 35mm or more will take this comfortably.

[Not your average framer]

Are we talking about the overall depth of the frame, or the internal depth? The cost of suitable frames mouldings seems to take a bit of an upward hike when the overall depth goes above 35mm and there is much less availablity of suitible internal spacers when you go above 25mm deep. There can easily be more work in producing box frames, so material cost can easily become a barrier to adequate profits. Left over bits and scraps of moulding can be a useful source of spacers, if you have got a decent table saw. I collect my left overs and scrap in a cardboard box which gets sorted out from time to time, matching scraps of moulding, with a little bit of an interesting almost flat profile on the front face often makes a really nice looking spacer, if you slice it up to leave the presentation face as one of the deeper faces on the spacer. Excessively deep front face detailing on the front face of the moulding, is not always a good thing, if you plan to mitre your spacers on a Morso.

Prices are definitely going up and that includes everything, so saving money when you can may be very helpful. I don't know what size box frames you intend to make, but I find it easier the make and sell smaller ones rather than larger ones. As much as I can I try to make these from left over scraps as ready made box frames which are easy to display in my shop windows, Smaller items are particularly well suited to impulse purchase items and dont usually need any thinking on the part of the customer as regards prblems with carriing such and item. When cutting spacers from existing pieces of moulding, if you can slice horizontally through the moulding, you usually will be left with the faces at the two shorter faces of the spacer, being those already machined as part of the original moulding and this helps considerably. Somewood types require less cleaning up the sawn finish than others, but there are still some which normally cut cleanly, except for the odd one that does not.

I find it very easy to cut waste bits of glass and backing board into %" x %"'s and 6" x 6"'s, so I make a many ready made frames in these sizes. Some are nicer than others are some are only suitable for the £1 box. Customers often buy more than one iten from the £1 box, so it's not a bad way of clearing less interesting items. I regularly make up "rustic" style frames from pieces of moulding with defects and knots, Nothing gets wasted and people think that the "rustic" frames are some a bit special and I charge extra for the "rustic" frames to highlight the fact that they are a bit special. Even items made from scraps and left overs, should alway be presented as really special items. I'm really into doing the niche market and this is right across the board. Even my ready made frames are marketed as nich market items and need to look distinctive and desireable. Boring stuff does not sell at all. Even my £1 box stuff needs to look like nice stuff, otherwise it won't sell. People buy the £1 box stuff to sell on eBay. It turns over very quickly!

[Not your average framer]

Has anyone looked at Simons moulding DISP / 0001 as a potential insert spacer and combined rear box extension for box frames? It's not a particularly bad deal in terms of price and also has a reabate for a backings board. It paints well with a thick chalky emulsion, to hide the surface grain. Just a thought!