Help Shadowboxing a Golfclub

[Mary Beth van der Horst]

I've quoted dozens of baseball bats, swords, golfclubs, etc, but noone's ever actually had me do it before. Surprise! This morning someone finally pulled the trigger and I got my first official order to shadowbox a golfclub. In a scramble to find something deep enough in a satin white finish(like she wanted), I could not find any extenders in my catalogues and settled on starting with International's 2425-55 (1.5" wide 2.25" deep white block cap). In order to make up the remaining depth needed, I'm thinking of cakestacking using Larson Juhl's 550286 (2.25" wide, 3/4" deep).

Can you guys think of any advice on how to make this thing more structurally sound? Now I'm regretting setting this up with such a skinny back moulding that it will ultimately hang off of, but at least I should be able to screw/glue the frames together pretty well and fill the gap between mouldings and inner mat-wall with foamcore or something.

Also, has anyone ever tried using any of the mighty mount clips on a golfclub before? The gun clips look super overkill but most others look too dainty to grip the stem--which tapers from 3/8-3/4"
I could try to sewmount it onto the reinforced back mat using upholstery thread, but I'm worried about it spinning. If it weren't an antique wooden putter, I wouldn't feel bad about putting silicone behind it, but.. I do.

Any bright ideas on how to mount it securely or advice/alternatives to cakestacking this and hanging successfully?

 

[wpfay]

Look at Pool cue racking hardware. Avoid metal on metal contact by lining any mount with felt or leather.

If you have some woodworking capability, build your own mounts from scratch. All you need are small blocks with a groove cut on one side to elevate the club from the background and some Mylar straps to secure the club to the block. Using 1/4" plywood for the structural backing you can screw the block to the backing from behind. Plywood can have cloth covering or a matboard. Put felt or leather on the contact point of the block so the wood doesn't contact the shaft of the putter. If positioned just below the grip and just above the putter head it provides a fairly strong mount. The friction of the shaft against the padding on the block mounts should be sufficient to keep the putter from turning in the display. PM if you need more detail.

The Mighty Mount clips do get brittle over time and fail more easily.

 

[Mary Beth van der Horst]

Look at Pool cue racking hardware. Avoid metal on metal contact by lining any mount with felt or leather.

If you have some woodworking capability, build your own mounts from scratch. All you need are small blocks with a groove cut on one side to elevate the club from the background and some Mylar straps to secure the club to the block. Using 1/4" plywood for the structural backing you can screw the block to the backing from behind. Plywood can have cloth covering or a matboard. Put felt or leather on the contact point of the block so the wood doesn't contact the shaft of the putter. If positioned just below the grip and just above the putter head it provides a fairly strong mount. The friction of the shaft against the padding on the block mounts should be sufficient to keep the putter from turning in the display. PM if you need more detail.

The Mighty Mount clips do get brittle over time and fail more easily.

Pool Cue clips! I like that idea, but I LOVE the thought of wood blocks! I don't have any woodworking capabilities that are bragworthy... but it's worth a try. And on second thought, with the head positioned the way we need it, the shaft would need to be suspended about 2.5" off the backboard anyways so custom blocks may be the only proper way to go. I've been picking up on the mylar strapping mount method I've seen a number of times around here and have already ordered some supplies to play with. I understand how it works on matboard, cutting slits, wrapping the mylar tails through and using a strong tape to adhere to the back of the mat, but if using mylar to keep it tight against a padded wood block, how/what would you secure your tails to?

 

[Al B]

Whew! I thought you wrote golf cart

 

[Mary Beth van der Horst]

Whew! I thought you wrote golf cart

HAHA, no not yet. However, THIS is a thing that happened recently...

 

[Ylva]

In order to make the frame secure (I am not familiar with the profile, just that you're saying it is very thin), you might have to build a strainer. That way, the frame becomes 'ornamental' and doesn't bear any of the weight.

 

[wpfay]

Wrap the Mylar around the base of the blocks, or make the blocks from a couple pieces and sandwich the Mylar between the halves. Here's a quick sketch.

 

[Mary Beth van der Horst]

In order to make the frame secure (I am not familiar with the profile, just that you're saying it is very thin), you might have to build a strainer. That way, the frame becomes 'ornamental' and doesn't bear any of the weight.

The frame I am cakestacking the back with will be 3/4" after I turn it. In theory, that means there would be a gap of 1/2-3/4" inside it and the true lip of the top frame. Kindof a skinny strainer, but maybe I should pack the gap with wood screwed to everything instead of foamcore?

 

[Mary Beth van der Horst]

Wrap the Mylar around the base of the blocks, or make the blocks from a couple pieces and sandwich the Mylar between the halves. Here's a quick sketch. View attachment 36219

Bless you. You even took the time to draw it for me! I will treasure this and your time. I'm still a little concerned about the tape adhering as well to plywood, but with this, I can always make a little hole and use the screw to anchor both the film and the block simultaneously!

 

[wpfay]

You even took the time to draw it for me!

That's because I'm lazy and didn't want to write 1000 words. Besides, framers are visual.
And, yes, you capture the Mylar, so adhering it isn't needed.

 

[Mary Beth van der Horst]

Oh boy you guys... I took all of the advice and its finally coming together at the 11th hour! A couple teaser pics for now. I finished making and adhering the strainer moulding that I can screw the back board and hanging hardware into so that the cakestack is purely aesthetic. Face frame is glued to the cakestack as well as the strainer--Also strainer and face frame are screwed together with offsets. Cakestack is reinforced with steel corners inside since my v-nails are shallow. I FINALLY picked up my custom wood mounts from a friend this morning. Gluing solid suede piece to plywood for a reinforced backboard to screw mounts into. I know we're all racing against the clock, but pray for me! This one was a huge learning experience for me.

 

[wpfay]

Good work, Grasshopper! LOL

We are collectively happy of your success, thanks for being a part of this family.
Stories like yours make the work we put into this site well worth it.

 

[Ylva]

What Wally said!
That is starting to look extremely awesome. Thanks for the updates and the photos. I love the wood mounts, that looks so beautiful.

Thank you for sharing your journey, it will be extremely helpful for future use, to have this as a reference.
Can't wait to see the final result!

 

[Mary Beth van der Horst]

IM SCREAMING!!!! ITS DONE!!!! And you guys are so sweet, I keep crying. I definitely feel like I am just the annoying noob some days, so thanks for being patient with me and making me feel like part of the framing family. It means the world to me to have a community to reach out to instead of trying to do it all by myself. This was a cathartic project tho so emotions are high anyways. Incidentally, I just had another local framer come by today for a piece of matboard I had--he saw it and said it was "beautiful," even despite some things I'm still a tad critical over.

When playing with the wood mounts, I almost thought the mylar may end up being redundant since the opening wraps around the stem more than just a halfcircle, but I doubled down anyways... if nothing else just to get a feel for working with it. This could probably be redone without it.

I scratched my museum glass, so its not perfect. Note to the next noob, when building walls, adhering spacers, and screwing strainers together in a deep box like this, lay a piece(s) of mat/foamcore on the glass to protect it from dropping screws, tools, etc. Since you build the glass in, its not like you can replace it last minute. My only other point of criticism is a little bit of a gap in my cakestack, but it's something probably only a framer will notice, and its not worth fussing over now. I realize it is a difficult technique that will get better with practice.... much like fillets!



This was yesterday just before I ATG/glued all of my wall-componants into place. The face moulding and the strainer ended up being 1/16 off from flush on the inside, so the bottom half needed foamcore and the top needed strips of matboard. I cut around all the offset clips so there wasnt any risk of them pushing against the gluing pieces and ruining the adhesion.

I screwed the wood mounts around the golfclub handle to make sure they were tight before screwing the whole thing to the back panel. In order to keep my registration, I lined everything up, and outlined the position of both blocks with a few pieces of painters tape, eyeballed where the screws were going to have to go, drilled through the plywood in 2 places for each mount(centered to each half), then crawled underneath(the board was bridging 2 tables) to poke little dots in the underside of the mounts with my awl. Since they are walnut, I had to predrill them. The awl-holes helped me line up for the drill. I had to make a last minute jig to hold the mounts straight to drill the underside, but just because my only vice is quite shallow and the tops of the mounts were rounded.

After all that, it was as simple as screwing the backboard into the shelf made by the strainer, dust covering the whole beauty, and then making sure the hanging hardware went into the strainer as well.

My lighting sucks, so this green suede looks super dark, but hopefully you guys can appreciate the final project! Thanks to everyone who took the time to advise me! I learned so much, I will never forget this frame.

 

[wpfay]

Did you end up using the LJ profile you mentioned early on?
Good job, but that cake stack looks like a real PITA to do.
Would you mind a little critique? Other than your own that is...lol.

 

[Mary Beth van der Horst]

Did you end up using the LJ profile you mentioned early on?
Good job, but that cake stack looks like a real PITA to do.
Would you mind a little critique? Other than your own that is...lol.

Yes I used both of the original mouldings I mentioned. In a perfect world, I would used both from the same company and had them join it /cakestack to fit, but that would have probably meant using the confetti white cap from LJ as the face moulding and that is a tad too skinny for me to feel good about it.

It was a PITA. I'm pretty sure I saw it mentioned elsewhere that I shouldn't even try to cut and join shadowboxes nor tall cakestacks with my Morso chopper and manual V-nailer, but... I'm a glutton for punishment I guess and it cut well--just joining it was nailbiting to say the least.

I realize my closeup is on my ugliest corner... I did manicure everything after this shot with a touch of white filler, but yes... please critique me. I was considering asking you to roast me because I'm sure there's still plenty I could have done better.

 

[Ylva]

I think I know what Wally is going to say.
I think you did a great job and learned a lot from it. Your customer will be extremely happy with this. And I am sure you’re happy to get this out the door!

We all have those jobs.
On my table today is a job that is oversized and the mat chosen doesn’t come in a 40x60.
I usually don’t like the splice look, no matter what, you can see it.
I started 3 times and rejected it 3 times. My 4th attempt is promising.

This is for a customer who doesn’t need it soon. He and his wife have placed so many orders in the past 5 years. I just need to wow them, again.

Good for you for finishing this, it looks great.

We enjoy having you here! You are what this forum is all about. We all were in your shoes and this forum has been a lifesaver for many of us.