I make a lot of picture frames for my wife's painting. To hold the paintings in the frame I have been buying 3' lengths of 1/16" X 1/2 steel or aluminum and cutting them in 1.25" length. I then drill a hole in them and and screw them to the frame to secure the painting.
I have been using a hacksaw to cut the lengths.
Is there a better, faster, cleaner way to cut the lengths from 1/16" X
1/2 material?
Not the answer you're looking for, but have you considered looking through a picture framer's catalog? There are at least a hundred types of pre-made, inexpensive fasteners for doing that very thing.
Otherwise, tin/aviation snips?
Greg G.
Something that thin could easily be cut by an angle grinder. Or a bandsaw. Or a chop saw with an abrasive blade.
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Inexpensive for someone retired, takes on a whole new meaning. The materials are a lot less than buying premade items. Besides I have not seen what I need for sale.
A simple free-standing infeed table and a stop on the outfeed side would allow cutting ~191 pieces in less than 5 minutes from one 8' piece of steel or aluminum stock. :)
Cold Chisel?
While I understand what you're saying, she'd have to be amazingly prolific for framing points at 10 bucks/2500, offset clips at $5/100, or turnbuttons at $15/1000 to put you in the poorhouse.
Take a look through "fitting equipment" and "framing and fitting guns" at
I make the frames from 1" material, and form the rabbet with a small piece of screen molding. (This is the basic system, but changes as I get new router bits. ) The stretchers are made from standard 1" X 2" furring strips that are carefully selected for quality (Lowes Loves me) My wife then stretches her own canvas.
Framing points will not work for this type of frame and stretcher system. The offset clips are either to much off set, not enough off set, or to short. If I could find the turnbottons at that price they would be a better, and if they were long enough to reach from the frame and cover the stretcher.
The reason that I was making them was I could not find any thing that provided the function at the cost.
When I was framing stretcher mounted stuff there used to be some sort of wire clip for the purpose. Worked but gimmicky and hard to find so I always just drove brads diagonally into the frame from near the stretcher edge.
I feel your pain. Wasn't trying to be a smartarse, but have a friend who owns a frame shop and some of the bulk retaining clips cost him pennies each. Around here, the BORGs get $6-7 for a strip of aluminum.
Obviously, a $500 anvil cutter is out of the question as well. :)
I've used aviation snips to cut 1/16" aluminum. Cheap versions can be bought for less than $10US. Just make sure the material is seated deep in the jaws and whack away. If it leaves a bit of a bend at the end, just lay it on a flat surface and whack it with a hammer - it'll straighten right out. Make sure you get a pair that has leverage and not a light duty version. Here is a Harbor Freight model:
FWIW,
Greg G.
The price I mentioned on the 1" turnbuttons is the going price at Jerry's Art-A-Rama, a national chain, so finding them shouldn't be too difficult--they'll ship to you for an additional 8 bucks shipping (the 8 bucks is per order, not per item) . That price by the way is without screws--the screws are another 8 bucks/1000.
I'm surprised that Harbor Fright doesn't have a "storehouse" package of them for 10 bucks.
On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:04:40 -0500, the infamous Greg G. scrawled the following:
Why not switch to glass pushpoints? Cheap, premade, available everywhere, secure.
-- When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary. -- Thomas Paine
Keith Nuttle wrote in news:he1cld$bpf$1 @aioe.org:
You might have some luck with a Harbor Freight "mini chop saw". It runs around $30, and replacement blades are 3 for $10. I've cut through nickel silver and brass HO scale (.100" tall) rail with little difficulties. However, it's not easy to cut through heavy stuff.
Puckdropper
This may do the job.
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