Jleschak
CGF, Certified Grumble Framer
Sometimes I go off on a tangent. A customer brought in some oversized 45”x60” reprint posters and we went with an acrylic covering and DCO mounting. Nothing really earth shattering here. In my shop I have 1 oversized work table that was already being taken up by another oversized papyrus I am working on and it’s going to take me a week or two to finish up.
So what was my problem? You could say it wasn’t really a problem, but more of an “opportunity”. What I found I was doing that I liked with oversized assembly when the picture is upside down, is to have the center of the acrylic have a filler the same height as the rabbet top….to keep it from sagging as I adjust and work on it. May not be totally necessary, but I feel more comfortable doing this. The other challenge is as I lay the frame upside down, I need to prevent any scratches to the frame - I resolved this initially by wrapping the frame in foam and paper, but it was time consuming and a pain.
So, while working on the 40x60 poster, I had a large piece of GatorFoam and decided to just hot glue some foam to it so I can lay the frame on it upside down and have it protected. Doing the hot glue on the foam was tricky and had to get the right temperature so the foam wouldnt melt, but yet it would adhere…(not really that difficult as it turned out). Once I did this, then I just laid some lengths of foam core of varying thicknesses to match the height up to the top of the rabbet. Then I out some packaging tape around the ends of the risers so that I can just use painters tape to keep the stack together as I am using it. That fundamentally is the solution. You need to realize I am a one-man shop and have to find ways to do as much as I can by myself safely before I have to call in my daughter to help, but will say this was a huge help and was able to do the 40x60 very quickly in a couple hours with no help.
To refine this, I found as I slide the “acrylic assembly platform” off the table to the ground with the frame, the risers, slide down and I was concerned about them possibly doing some damage to delicate mouldings…so I put some foam core stoppers at the ends of the main board. Then I realized I am going to have to store this future use and these 6 or so risers would be falling all over the place, so I made some foam core holders which secure with Velcro will allow me to store the whole thing vertically.
The first picture is the papyrus I am working on and the foam and paper around the frame as I knew this would be a multi-month project. The other two are the platform in storage state and then ready to put the acrylic on it (will move the other unneeded pieces before I do this obviously)….but you should get the ideal. I think I will try it for a time or two and then build one with a 48x96 full sheet of 1/2” GatorFoam as I dont have a table that big and dont really have the room for it either.
I know…I am the only person with this problem probably, but what a great day to use some brain cells in a creative way!
So what was my problem? You could say it wasn’t really a problem, but more of an “opportunity”. What I found I was doing that I liked with oversized assembly when the picture is upside down, is to have the center of the acrylic have a filler the same height as the rabbet top….to keep it from sagging as I adjust and work on it. May not be totally necessary, but I feel more comfortable doing this. The other challenge is as I lay the frame upside down, I need to prevent any scratches to the frame - I resolved this initially by wrapping the frame in foam and paper, but it was time consuming and a pain.
So, while working on the 40x60 poster, I had a large piece of GatorFoam and decided to just hot glue some foam to it so I can lay the frame on it upside down and have it protected. Doing the hot glue on the foam was tricky and had to get the right temperature so the foam wouldnt melt, but yet it would adhere…(not really that difficult as it turned out). Once I did this, then I just laid some lengths of foam core of varying thicknesses to match the height up to the top of the rabbet. Then I out some packaging tape around the ends of the risers so that I can just use painters tape to keep the stack together as I am using it. That fundamentally is the solution. You need to realize I am a one-man shop and have to find ways to do as much as I can by myself safely before I have to call in my daughter to help, but will say this was a huge help and was able to do the 40x60 very quickly in a couple hours with no help.
To refine this, I found as I slide the “acrylic assembly platform” off the table to the ground with the frame, the risers, slide down and I was concerned about them possibly doing some damage to delicate mouldings…so I put some foam core stoppers at the ends of the main board. Then I realized I am going to have to store this future use and these 6 or so risers would be falling all over the place, so I made some foam core holders which secure with Velcro will allow me to store the whole thing vertically.
The first picture is the papyrus I am working on and the foam and paper around the frame as I knew this would be a multi-month project. The other two are the platform in storage state and then ready to put the acrylic on it (will move the other unneeded pieces before I do this obviously)….but you should get the ideal. I think I will try it for a time or two and then build one with a 48x96 full sheet of 1/2” GatorFoam as I dont have a table that big and dont really have the room for it either.
I know…I am the only person with this problem probably, but what a great day to use some brain cells in a creative way!
Rick
