The Framers Forum

by spacers I mean fillets, can be paper wrapped in a box frame, I cant staple as some people do as I have no compressor and have been using double sided tape. Is there a sort of tape which will last longer than another? I guess the longer the strip the longer it will last rather than just putting a piece a few cm long.

I think you were right first time, spacers; they sit in and are fixed to the rebate of the frame? Staples would look pretty nasty, unless they were covered with mount board.......... which you'd have to stick on.

The belt & braces method is to glue them on, with PVA./wood glue, but use a couple of small dabs of DS tape each side, just to hold while glue dries. To facilitate easier future removal, use dots of adhesive, not one long bead.

Another option is to use DS tape only but on the bottom of the spacer, stuck to the glass, but that's best for acrylic spacers.

the staples Ive seen were put through the top edge at an angle so you dont see them, thx for that, glue.

I've never used staples. Often but not always a few bits of ds tape and glue as John says. Most often I mitre and join them with 3-5mm wedges and they just slot right in job done.

that sounds very thorough never heard of using wedges but wont stop them sagging over a longish horizontal stretch surely?

Sure, if required a dot of ds tape in the middle with a couple of drops of pva each side.

Simons do a few nice solid oak and ash spacers, they’re the only ones I ever underpinned, in fact they’re the only ones I ever bought, the rest were free, from long skinny foam board and mount board scraps you’d normally toss.