Oval picture frame

I have an oval picture for which I would like to make a frame. I can draw the oval

As I see it there would be two parts in cutting the oval.

----- The oval cut that would eventually frame the picture.

----- The rabbet cut to hold the picture.

I have the following tools available to me:

  1. Table saw (I have no idea how this could be used)
  2. Standard size non plunge router with router table.
  3. Dremmel with spiral cut bit and other router bits.
  4. Jig saw.
  5. Drill press with brad point and Forstner bits.

Can I get suggestions making the cutout for the picture.

Finishing the outside edges is obvious.

Reply to
Keith Nuttle
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More Information:

Major axis length (longest "diameter") Minor axis length (shortest "diameter") Stock thickness.

One more tool:

Analytic Geometry :)

Let 2a = major axis let 2b = minor axis

There will be two foci (on the major axis)

The distance from the center to either focus is sqrt(a^2 - b^2)

The equation, if you want to plot an ellipse is

x^2/a^2 + y^2/b^2 = 1

Or, if you want to construct an ellipse:

push a pin into each of the foci tie a string to each pin so that if you pull the string taut with a pencil point, the pencil point will just touch a point at a distance b from the center on the perpendicular bisector of a line between the two foci.

It sounds a lot more complicated than it really is :)

Once you've drawn it, you can freehand rout the opening - and can then use a rabbet bit to cut for the glass and photo.

FWIW - this project begs for a spindle sander. ;-)

Reply to
Morris Dovey

You would probably go with an elipse cutting jig\tramel something like this (there are lots of them out there)

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basic steps one would typically follow is...

- Cut a template from MDF or other easy to cut material using the jig

- Use the template to draw the shape on your blank stock

- Cut the blank stock close to finish size with band\jig\scroll\ect. saw

- Use the template to finish rout the real part using a bearing \pattern bit.

For an oval you might want to be creative on the glue up of some stock using sticks to get a rough shape, maybe using half lap joints.

Reply to
SonomaProducts.com

P.S. Thanks for the meaty actual woodworking post. ;^)

Reply to
SonomaProducts.com

For an oval you might want to be creative on the glue up of some stock using sticks to get a rough shape, maybe using half lap joints.

---------------------------------------- Think I'd want to use scarf joints, at least 8:1, rather than half laps.

And as Morris stated, this job begs for a spindle sander.

Have fun.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

I think of lap and scarf as the same thing. I was thinking a lap\scarf similar to the first on on this page

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bevel cut the ends to accomodate the oval. say if you want a 2" wide finish you use 4" wide sticks roughed to the shape.

Which type of scarf would you suggest?

Reply to
SonomaProducts.com

If you only need one and can draw it, draw it up and cut it out with a jigsaw. Leave a bit of excess. Put a sanding drum in your drill press and sand to the line. Use a rabbet bit for the recess.

Reply to
CW

----------------------------------------- Fig 211 in your reference is what I know as a half lap joint.

I know a scarf joint is some form of a tapered joint such as fig 213.

Not sure whether I'd want to have the scarf joint horizontal (fig 213) or vertical as would typically found be found on a boat cap rail.

Probably vertical since it would simplify forming the curved sections same as a boat cap rail.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

Keith Nuttle wrote in news:hoqmq2$moo$ snipped-for-privacy@speranza.aioe.org:

I'd get a piece of MDF to use for a template. After deciphering Morris' instructions on how to draw an oval, cut it out close with your jigsaw. Smooth it up with a drum sander in your drill press. Cut the real material with the jigsaw as close as you can to the correct shape. Using double-stick tape, adhere the template to the real material. Then use a flush trim router bit to copy the shape of your template. If you can get this far the rabbet is the easy part.

Larry

Reply to
Larry

Two thumbtacks and a closed string. Calculate the foci's points from the major and minor axis. Simple algebra. Once you know - then any size can be done.

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:

x^2/a^2 + y^2/b^2 = 1 where b^2 = a^2 - c^2.

where a is 1/2 long diameter and b = 1/2 short diameter and c is 1/2 the length between pins.

Mart> >> I have an oval picture for which I would like to make a frame. I can >

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Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

nza.aioe.org:

Reply to
SonomaProducts.com

I did a cursory search but can't find it, but David J. Marks had a helluva good episode on making an oval mirror(IRRC) frame ... would really be worthwhile tracking down the show.

Reply to
Swingman

If I recall many years ago either ShopNotes or Woodsmith magazine had plans for a router jig to make elliptical frames. I believe it used

1/4" threaded rod to allow adjustment to various sizes. The router mounted directly to the jig.

I tried a Google search and came up blank. Anyone have their index(s) (I'm pretty sure it was ShopNotes).

Reply to
Nova

I'm such a dumb redneck. I probably would have just traced the picture. Then told the wife I need a bandsaw and a spindle sander. :)

LdB

Reply to
LdB

Be a _smart_ redneck - tell 'er you need a CNC router and /maybe/ a bandsaw and a spindle sander after that. :-D

Reply to
Morris Dovey

Bummer. I can sympathize because my freshman physics class was a Korean who had a similar handicap, and who made up for it by screaming his lectures. I dropped the course after a week and restarted the following quarter with a different prof, along with all the folks who'd stuck it out and failed the course.

The guy who taught my Calculus and Analytic Geometry class, by contrast, was clear, soft-spoken, and wrote everything on the blackboard as he lectured. He wrote with his right hand and erased with his left as he went, with pauses as he walked back to the left side of the board. It would have been humorous if I hadn't been in a permanent panic to get things into my notes before they disappeared. :)

Reply to
Morris Dovey

I detested that class.

Prof was a Yugoslav, didn't have a great command of English. He had been a partisan and his throat had been cut ear to ear; no idea if that affected his speech but he was next to impossible to understand. It was the only class I *ever* had to repeat.

Reply to
dadiOH

LdB wrote in news:TtqdneHlgqiHpi_WnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@supernews.com:

You also need a welder and file set to make the cut with a bandsaw and not cut through the frame. Oh, and something to cut the bandsaw blade again after it's done.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

Just having the youngest out of college, I know that taking notes in class today can be as simple as hitting a button and letting the recording device/laptop tape the lecture.

I can't help but think that letting technology do it for you probably skips a vital link in the synapses that the process of writing it down completes. I was thinking about that the other day when responding to the thread on width, length, etc.

Botany prof drew pictures of plant cell structures on a blackboard and students were required to handcopy them to a notebook that was part of the course grade ....and today, 45 years later, those pictures I copied from that blackboard are still vivid in my mind.

Also had a Korean grad student that taught an advanced math course full of words like 'vector-value', 'differential', etc. that he couldn't pronounce in an understandable manner to anyone ... a brilliant guy, but he cost most of us a grade point or two.

Reply to
Swingman

One of the best teachers I ever had was my analytical geometry teacher in high school. I had many more in college but he was the best.

As for technology in the class room while there are negatives, there are all so some strong positives. If I have a computer in physical chemistry I may have a better understanding of how the various equation performed.

Of course you go to school to learn what you do not know, and to learn to learn.

Reply to
Keith Nuttle

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