Frustrated with poor quality mouldings

Hunter & Gatherer

Grumbler in Training
Joined
May 5, 2006
Posts
1
Loc
Wide Brown Land
We've all heared stories about the quality of Picture frame mouldings, from warped, scratched, dinted, & uneven stain colours.
My grumble is about the quality of the moulding on the INSIDE. On the outside a flaw cannot be detected, but once you start cutting it, it becomes soft, mushy, and it almost seems like its made out of rotting timber. It can happed in the middle of the moulding lengths or at the end, but wherever the bad moulding is, it seems you have to waste half the length until the bad bits are chopped out. Unfortunatley by this time all you've managed to do is add to your pile of shavings, so there goes any credit from your suppliers.
I don't know about you other framers out there, but we find this to be a growing problem, and the problem is not with just one supplier, it is across the board. I understand this may not be a supplier issue but instead a manufacturing issue.
How often does it happen to all you hard working, long suffering framing folks.
Go on, vent your frustations. Tell me I'm not alone here.
 
If it is bad I return it whether it has been cut, cut and joined or even
months later, if there is a problem I will return it. The companies I deal with
always credit my account or replace the product. The only exception is I
purchased the moulding as a closeout, overrun or discounted item.

I have 10’ to be returned today to Larson because it is warped beyond use. A few
months ago I had a framed mirror in my window display when I noticed the finish
was pealing off, it was returned to Southern Moulding for credit.

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H & G - Welcome to "The Grumble"
Over the years we have all experienced some problems w/ moulding. It's part of the "nature" of the business. Our suppliers don't intentionally try to sell us inferior merchandise, just as we don't intend to sell an inferior product to our customer.
Moulding, as any wood product, is a product of nature and as such, is prone to it's own quirks and anomalies - it's just something you have to deal with. The better suppliers will deal w/ it in a fair & equitable manner - others will not - those that don't won't be around very long.
 
Earlier this year, our local supplier took-on a new cheap black frame. The numbers looked good until it took 20' to make a 12x16 . . .
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and then the face started chipping, and when I touched it a 2" chunk came off.
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They returned the entire 20,000'. Now they chop and join before they buy. Great company. Always a pleasure to deal with.
 
Finger-jointed mouldings can be ****, two feet great, next two feet are crap, the cut end is all mushy and the back is ragged; if you do succeed in a neat cut, sometimes the 'thumper' (that's what I call it) on the underpinner leaves a neat round impression!

I bundle it, show it to the rep and he says "OK - trash it" and I either get a credit or a QC checked replacement. Most will do it with a phone call but it happens so often I'd get a complex!
 
Originally posted by Hunter & Gatherer:
My grumble is about the quality of the moulding on the INSIDE...once you start cutting it, it becomes soft, mushy, and it almost seems like its made out of rotting timber...
According to Bossy Ellen, that is snotwood.

I think the origin of the species is unknown, but it now grows on all continents and has recently become a favorite of picture frame moulding manufacturers. :rolleyes:

One Observation: As wood mouldings decline in quality, plastic mouldings continue to improve.

Two Observation: The newer wood mouldings are mostly "faux" finishes that show no grain. They may be easily reproduced on extruded polystyrene.
 
Snotwood? LOL! I've always called it rain forest wood - I must have heard that somewhere and it stuck with me. Very porous, smooshes when you look at it and shreds in the chopper.

Yuck!
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I have had problems cutting "snotwood" with the foot-chopper, but can cut it cleanly with a miter-saw. How many of the chopped frames that we order do you think are made with poor quality wood? If the joints seem tight, even though the wood is soft, do you feel that it is adequate quality product that you can take pride in? I have used a miter-saw to cut moulding that couldn't be foot-chopped in my shop. Do you think "snotwood" should always be trashed?

Cam
 
Snotwood= usually an unusually porus area in Jelutong. Almost impossible to detect durring manufacturing finger joined mouldings. Its usually only a small area in a moulding.
 
Hey Baer - name names! Good or bad, you should give up the name of the company. Unless, of course, you are keeping it to yourself to be stingy...
 
Bossy Ellen misspelled it.

It's Snotlwood: Something Not On The List wood. Ususally it's Jajing that got into the Jelutong wood pile....

It is a far inferior wood, and cost next to nothing. But when an unscruplious wood merchant throws in 10% jajing in a truckload of Jelutong... Je JING!

Canton, you can fanticize about Framer's Inventory here in Portland OREGON, but in the morning you have to face reality that they don't ship. But Gryphon and Garrett do.
 
Ellen's sounds better and it is a more colorful interpretation of our feelings about that type of wood.
 
Baer - That's the problem with most of my fantasies. They look great in the cortex, but somehow I can't get my hands on them. So I've got to find something else for my hands to do...
 
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