Squaring

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A

Al E

CGF II, Certified Grumble Framer Level 2
Joined
Jan 21, 2001
Posts
446
Loc
Starrucca,PA,USA
Since mats and fc aren't square as delivered I am curious what techniques most grumblers use to assure squaring? Do you square the 32x40 or have a method of cutting a square blank out of the unsquare whole mat?
 
Most framers don't square foam and matboard when they come in.

They do, however square it when cutting mat blanks to size by hand...either on a mat cutter or on a multi-material cutter like a Fletcher glass/board/foam cutter.
 
Well, I thought I was pretty fussy but I have never had a problem with this. Really, with a C.M.C. the hole is always going to be nicely squared and if the outsides are out a couple of millimetres the rebate of the frame will cover that. It would only matter with a manual cutter if you had to cut a matt to go within a few millimetres of a border.
 
Most of the time we square up our mats on the Fletcher 3000. We had some trouble with the mats being slightly off prior to this. The method I have found works great.
Place the mat in the cutter and leave at least 1/8 excess and make the cut, turn the mat clockwise and make the second cut to size, for the final cut, turn the mat clockwise and cut to size. This way you have 3 sides that are squared. After we started using this method our mats are all true to size and always line up. Of course the Wizard can cut the outside, but depending on the size of the mat, it might not be an option.
 
I'm with Myrna...thats what we do. It only takes a few seconds to trim all
sides and believe me...I have had situations where not doing that mattered!
My favorite saying:

"Why is there always enough time to do it over, but never enough time to do it right in the first place". There ya go. Make it a habit and save yourself real
headaches.:D
 
Thanks for the replies. I have also used this trimming method because in a few instances I have found that the blanks aren't square. I remember a Grumbler referring to the "factory edge" and thought that had something to do with squaring.
 
There is nearly always at least one perfectly square corner on the boards I get. (I use a 24 inch aluminum carpenters square to check them). But when there isn't or you are using a remainder, starting from scratch is a good idea.

That rock-star hero of mine Paul Frederick explained this technique well in his book back when that and my wits were the only resources I had.
 
wvframer said:
That rock-star hero of mine Paul Frederick explained this technique well in his book back when that and my wits were the only resources I had.
Click to expand...

What a great description of the good old days! I still reference Paul's books, yes, even with the resources available nowadays.
 
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