Hello, 45: perfect picture frame jig
What makes a perfect jig? Well, here are my criteria:
1) Easy to make. If it ain’t, I won’t.
2) Cheap and readily available materials. See #1.
3) Minimum of precision cutting. The more cuts have to be just-right, the more likely I am to botch the whole thing, which brings us back to #1.
4) Does what it’s supposed to do.
So I made some picture frames recently, and they had pretty mediocre corners. If you’ve tried to get a perfect 45 degree miter before, you know what a pain in the posterior this can be. I messed around with building a crosscut sled, but the runners kept sticking, and it wasn’t quite dead on.
Then it hit me, like a red sock to a baseball. I was making this way too complicated. I could do it with two pieces of wood and exactly one measurement, in about ten minutes. Here’s what I did.
Materials:
1) A scrap of plywood
2) A stick of hardwood
so far, so good. Start out by putting a straight edge on one side of the plywood. Then rip the other side parallel. Not too hard so far, right?
Next, take your stick, true up one side, and rip the other parallel. Still not real tough.
Now… well, a picture’s worth a thousand words. Click for an enlargement.
Basically you drive one screw, line up 45, then drive a second, and you’re DONE. To use it, you clamp something against your stick and run the plywood against your fence. That’s right, you use the fence–no need for runners and all the pain that entails. Using the jig is as easy as trimming a piece of plywood.
In this picture, you see the plywood, the stick (walnut in this case), and a rafter square used to set 45. The blade is also up to show how it would work if it was running–obviously not wise to leave your blade up when you’re measuring, kids. You also see a bunch of extra holes from some experimenting I was doing. Don’t worry, you only need two screws. I’d suggest a taller and thinner stick than I used, though; this one is tough to clamp to.
Slap one together out of some scrap lumber and see for yourself. You’ll thank me for it.
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