The Mat Doctors column in the May issue of Picture Framing Magazine had an interesting technique on cutting double and triple mats by Tim Franer.
The technique involves using the dropout from the first mat as a guide to laying out the second by taping it face up to the second. A template is cut and placed in the mat cutter the reveal depth away from the cutter. The second mat is placed in the cutter with the dropout up against the template and the second mat is marked from that.
I had on deck at the time a double opening double mat so I tried it on that (after practicing on scrap) and it works very well.
My only problem is that the reveal on the inner mat wasn't the right size. In trying for a 1/4" reveal, I ended up with a 1/8" reveal. I was able to compensate by moving the template out further and also bevel cut the template rather than using the straight cut in the column.
My final results were good but I'm wondering if I missed something in the column that messed up my initial reveal. I'm can't figure out why the specified method didn't work right for me.
The technique involves using the dropout from the first mat as a guide to laying out the second by taping it face up to the second. A template is cut and placed in the mat cutter the reveal depth away from the cutter. The second mat is placed in the cutter with the dropout up against the template and the second mat is marked from that.
I had on deck at the time a double opening double mat so I tried it on that (after practicing on scrap) and it works very well.
My only problem is that the reveal on the inner mat wasn't the right size. In trying for a 1/4" reveal, I ended up with a 1/8" reveal. I was able to compensate by moving the template out further and also bevel cut the template rather than using the straight cut in the column.
My final results were good but I'm wondering if I missed something in the column that messed up my initial reveal. I'm can't figure out why the specified method didn't work right for me.