The Framers Forum

Here is a fairly large chunky standed moulding frame sample chevron in unfinished bare wood. It's not new, but something which I produced before moving shop premises, or having my second and rather damaging stroke. My frst stroke was a trivial stroke known as a TIA. I just thought that I would include as a hopefully helpful item of information for somebody. It contains two reasonably useful pine mouldings which also represent a helpful cost in terms of value for money. Simons 0PIN/0029 and Simons 0PIN/0030, which has now been changed to 0PIN/0030F. The F at the end is because this has now been changed to a finger jointed pine moulding.

The gothic style obeche moulding which makes up the sight edge is Simons M0099, which again is helpfully cheap. The mouldings are glued and stampled together using 20 gauge narrow crown stample from withing the inside of the frame and will not be visible, once the frame is sealed. These staples are produced from a completely rust proof material and secure everything together while the glue sets, saving plenty of useful time. I can go ahead with the hand finishing of the frames, without waiting for the glue to set and this saves my plenty of time.

I have to battle against time to maximise my profitability, because stacked mouldings can otherwise use up too much valuable time and this was already an important consideration, even before I had my stroke. The narrow crown staples are little internal clamps, which simply don't move and stay there permanently. I still use staples and brad nails, now after my stroke to maintain my productivity and profitability. In fact, using my pneumatic staplers, bead nailers and headless pinner guns are an important part of how how I am able to continue working after becoming quite crippled by the stroke.

Any comments are welcome,
Mark.

That seems like a lot of effort to make something that is not dissimilar to single mouldings that are available.

My thought exactly. If you want to make life a little easier why not order standard mouldings on chop?

These individual mouldings are mouldings which I already stock and use for a number of different uses. Also this particular stacked moulding combination projuces a really substantial looking frame, I am not myself aware of a similar looking moulding of the same size at such a helpful price. I have over 30 different mouldings which I stock and use as general purpose moulding which are both cost effective and suitable for a variety of uses, including a lot of different ways in which they are combined to make all manner of stacked moulding frames.

This particular combination can accomodate a depth of 28mm within the frame, without anything extending out the back, extending the frame away from the wall that it's hanging from. It is also very popular for deep box frames. The overall width of this stacked moulding combination is 62mm and it looks perfect for hanging in rooms in large houses with elegent internal architectural features and there are many really large grand houses within my inmediate area. It's a useful market for me!

Ignoring the raised centre moulding, the visible side view of this stacked moulding combination is 30mm thick. I am particularly focused on presenting a really substantial side view to larger moulding profiles, Thin section mouldings simply lack any impression of being significant, or meaningful proportions. Too many modern frames lack the impression of size and proportions, which only a sizable side profile can provide. I think that it's worth a little extra cost to produce that effect.

To quote Prospero "In framing, nothing suceeds like excess". My experience definitely confirms this to be true. When I display such well proportioned mouldings in my shop windows, they are the one's which get all the attention from people passing by. I produce such stacked mouldings in various widths according to customers budgets, deep side profiles is generally what produces most higher value framing orders. Mouldings with skinny side profiles, too easily just look cheap.

This particular deep outer moulding gets used with many other moulding combinations and even gets cut down on the table saw to use with narrower and often at times with many more shapely mouldings as well. This particular moulding has a noticably wider rebate the most and when cut on it's side as in this case, the moulding inserted in to that side ways presented rebate has more depth to be set in to and looks better proported as a result. I have some books about architecture, which show dimension and proportions and believe me it's all about form and proportions and the same is so often true with picture frames as well.

For me stacked moulding frames are all about style, shape, shaddow lines and how they look from every direction. Skinny sides are not what it's all about and you usually can not buy all in one moulding which present that necessary side view depth and imposing presence. Where do the manufacturers save money? It's nearly always on the mouldings depth and this is where I like to add that extra visual impact.