So, my sister's birthday passed recently. One thing she really wanted was a frame for a Che Guevera (sp) poster that she has, which is quite a bit larger than any generic sized frame we could find. After consulting some framing places, we discovered that a basic custom frame would cost about $140 and would take 3 weeks. This was a week before her birthday, and kinda pricey. So, I decided I would try my hand at carpentry and just make a frame.

Let me tell you now boys and girls, it is definitely not the easiest thing to do. But, after a bit of struggling I figured out that you need to cut wood for a frame flat, instead of on an angle, to make the 45 degree angles work properly. Thankfully I noticed this right away and was able to save the wood I was working on. A miter saw would have been very helpful, and it will definitely be a future investment if I decide to become a picture frame maker, but my trusty hand saw did the job this time.

I used a simple corner clamp to hold the peices at their 45 degree angles and glue them, and when I went to glue the last peice... Even to my surprise, it fit. I was expecting a little work to get it in there but it was just perfect.

After letting all the glue dry sufficiently, I sanded away the extra on the corners, and began painting today with a basic flat spray paint and then a low gloss finish. I must say it looks pretty neat, and my sister seems happy with my progress so far.

All that is left is to get the glass or plexiglass for the inner section, and then make some kind of device to keep the picture within then frame (like those little plastic things? I'm not sure yet)

So far I have spent about $65 on materials and $12 on the corner clamp. So assuming that the glass/plexiglass isn't more than $45, it will be worth it! And it only took about 2 weeks... Well pretty good for my first attempt right!

Frame building? Check!