Stretcher bar Jig

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Joe Dellert CPF

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Joined
Jan 25, 2002
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48
Loc
San Francisco
Hello everybody
I haven't logged on in awhile but this search has lead me to your vast wealth of knowledge and opinion. No I am not looking for the correct moves for a new dance done by framers on certain moonlite nights. What I seek is a source for a jig to make expandable stretcher bar joints. I read Paul Mcfarlands Article last month on conservation care of works on canvas and found our process lacks this one element. I realize that they may be order by the inch from some suppliers but we do things in fractions around here so I think doing it ourselves would be more appropriate. We have all the basic woodshop tools I just need the right jig to get going.
 
I believe this has been discussed here before and I think it was said that no such jig for purchase exists, I may be wrong.
But in my preframer life I was a cabinet maker and if you have all of the woodworking tools it should be fairly easy to come up with your own jig. Off the top of my head I would think you could route the tongue and groove. You could start with a purchased stretcher bar as a model, set your router to the depth of the tongue and then make a jig with your 45 on it minus the width or your router base. Do the same thing for the groove. If you really make alot of these you could even have special knives ground for the exact shape.
A jig could also be made so that you could cut the tongue and groove on a table saw using the same idea. Now if this is sounding confusing it is easier to see in my minds eye than to explain, but if you are a carpenter/woodworker you probably get the point.

Hang around awhile and Baer will tell you how it can be done, or to forget about it. "Baers the Man" when it comes to these things
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Joe, I would love to a URL like gohere.com but I can't.

I would love to tell you that the wonderful tenoning jig from Delta that slides along your table saw....

I just have never used that jig.

About 35 years ago, we had a shaper blade and jig set-up that allowed for us to pass a leg at 45 degrees to the blade. We had two sleds that ran in the table slides. All of the lefts with on sled and the rights with the other.. can't remember why it wasn't a simple matter of flipping over.

I do remember that both jigs had about a dozen adjustment screws that we redid everytime we had to sharpen the blades.

Because of that, we would make a run about every three months and first do all the "custom" sizes and them run a whole bunch of stock sizes.

Now it is just easier to call Penthouse and just order the size you want.. the keys work better too.

Just remembered why the second sled... the keyways aren't 45s, they were a seperate run and knife..... I think... oh my head hurts from all this thinking... :D Good luck. And if you figure it out.. post it on the homemade framing stuff forum.. it needs a new posting.
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I have tried this on a router table without success.The problem is there is no standard size bit here in the UK, that is long enough at such a small diameter.
I think they could be done on a table saw with some home made jigs.
 
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