Triple Mat Technique in May PFM Mag

Larry Peterson

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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.
 
Ouch...

Larry, you got a lot further then I did...

Note: I thought John had written the article...no wonder I didn't get a reply. No telling what John thought about my email...wink.

I read and re-read and tried to get it to work for me, but alas, I never could figure it out.

Guess I'll stay close to this thread since I have two triple mats to do this week so far.

best
 
I don’t get it either!

For mats that won’t fit in your cutter, why not use the squaring arm on the right side of the cutter as a ruler?

If, for example, you needed a seven inch mat border for a 20 x 24 mat and you couldn’t set your guide bar to seven inches, take the width of the mat (20”), subtract the 7”, then subtract the width of the slide bar. The width of my C&H is exactly 2-1/2 inches, so in this instance, I would set the stop on my squaring arm to 20 – 7 – 2.5 = 10-1/2 inches. Make your cut as usual on the left. For another mat with a 1/4” reveal, replace the fall out, tape the under mat to the top mat, and subtract 0.25 from the 10.5 inches.

… or, am I missing something?
 
One of the things that is nice about this method is that the inner mats are not attached to the outer mats when they are cut; only the dropout from the outermat is attached to the inner mat. I have always had trouble marking and cutting multiple inner mats and getting the reveal to be perfect. No matter how carefully I measure, the reveals are never quite perfect. The back of my mats end up looking like a crossword puzzle. With this method you can get perfectly matched reveals regardless of whether you have 2 openings or 20. This method isn't just for larger mats; its for cutting any multiple double and triple mats. It's also good to use on a single opening when the margins are different on all sides. On the one I did, I had two openings with 8 different margins. I did significantly less marking than I would have done normally. Only the outer mat openings where marked; the inner mat markings where done on the seperately cut inner mats only and they were only needed to mark the corners because you cut based on the outer dropout lining up against the template. If you know your stop dimensions you don't even need to mark the inner mat since the template serves as your margin guide.

In short, you attach each dropout face up to the inner mat, then mark and cut the inner mat based on the dropout of the first. The template insures that the cuts are accurate (the template must be square as does the outer mat). When the inner mat is cut, you place the dropout of the second and first mat back into the outer mat and then attach the second mat to the first by placing it back over the two dropouts.

I read the article a number of times and didn't get it for a while. Finally I decided to just try it and suddenly it became clear. The key is the template. I would like to see the article redone so that it is a bit clearer because it seems like a great method. I am going to try later to figure out why my reveals were half what they should have been and when I do, I will probably use this for most multiple opening mats. It was very confusing until it became clear and then it became easy.
 
oooohhhhh great!

I still don't get it.

Yea, I know, God said brains and I thought he said trains and I wasn't going anywhere?

At least I was on target with how difficult it was trying to understand the article.

Larry, I printed out your post and will give this another try when I get to the shop this morning.

best
 
I'm not sure that I understand the whole purpose of this exercise. What is this "template" type mat opening style used for?? I can see it used to good effect on mat borders that exceed the capacity of your mat cutter, my C&H can go a bit over 6". But c'mon folks, what is the big problem with using the mat guide and putting a few tic marks on each board to indicate the corners of the cut?? And, if you use production stops, you don't even have to do THAT!!

If your mat cutter is properly calibrated (there he goes again with that calibration thing!) I cannot, for the life of me, understand what possible problems you could be having with any mat that has a 6" border or less!

Time savings?? I can't see any time saved in this template process at all.

Easier to set up?? How much easier can cutting a mat be for you?? You set your mat border width, mark the corners using that setting and run with it!

Misaligned reveals when cutting multiple mats? Check your procedure for adding the back mats or your mat cutter for squareness!!

The only application that I can see is in cutting mat borders that exceed the mat guide calibrations. I cut most of my mats over 4" lately, even many that are exposing less than postcard size images, but I haven't had a single customer ask for a 7" mat border!

You can be guilty of overkill with the use of matboard widths when the finished product is a framed image of a green matboard with a teeny hole in the middle housing some image that becomes lost in that "sea" of green!

So I would appreciate being enlightened on the useful benefits of this technique. If there are valid reasons to learn this "template" technique, I will be right up there in line to get my practice matboards to start cutting!

Framerguy
 
Tom, Tom, Tom...

It's not the single opening using double or triple mats that is at issue here...it's when you're cutting several opening using double or triple mats (and yes, you could have a window more then 7" from the boarder)...

I have a job right now that has 9 window openings but is only using a single mat...no problem...but when I try, say, 3+ window openings with multiple mats I start running into problems.

Tom, do you have another procedure, other then a CMC of course, for doing them exactly?

Intellectual donation to my best buddy...wink.
 
Cliff, get the little gold quilters wheel that marks off 1/4 inch increments and don't ever sell a multiple opening mat with anything other than a 1/4 inch reveal and you my friend, can die a happy man. I promise, it is a lifesaver. I'd be more exact but don't have time to write it all out right now. It has been discussed in previous threads.......

Say hallelujah y'all.
 
Well, back in the day....

I learned on a Keeton Kutter and we cut all mats by sight. Marking the top mat for the basic opening (adjusted in size for second/ third ect...),and using thickness gages (graduated in 1/16" increments) to scribe the additional mats from the top mat. There were no mat guides or stops and we could do multiple opening/ multi layered mats just fine...only it took all day.

I still used this method until earlier this year when I got a CMC (and sometimes still do when the learning curve is too great, or my patience too small).
 
Sorry, Cliffie, I didn't see the article and you'se guys ain't 'splainin' the situation to my understanding.

OK, if you have 26 openings in a mat and you need to double mat the stuff, I mark and cut the back mat first, placing a mark on the tops of each mat to align them later on. (top to top in case they are symmetrical.)

I have a little gauge that I bought somewhere to set the depths of bench saw blade cuts. It is incremented in 1/4" increments on one side and 1/8" increments on the other side. I mark each side of each opening with the gauge to whatever I need for the top mat. This is marked alongside the cuts left on the back of the top mat when I cut the bottom mat. Then I use a T-square that is really square and sort of connect the dots.

When cutting the top mat, it is important to place the drawn lines directly under the mat cutter blade as the measurments were made to those lines. If you put the lines against the mat cutter bar, you will have a wider reveal than planned because the blade enters the matboard outside the line when it is tight against the mat cutter bar.

I've been doing this for many years and it goes fairly fast after a few hundred mats. :D You get a feel for marking and cutting the second mat after some practice and I sometimes adjust for lines that were not drawn parallel to the cut marks (I get in a hurry sometimes.).

Clear as mud, eh, Cliffie??

Framerguy
 
Well, I did it...almost. Still a couple of issues.

first, Kathy...1/4" only...uuuuuummmmm, ok. thanks.

Tom, I printed out you post and will try it today, thank you my friend.

3 areas I still need help in.

1 how do you control the revel using this system. I follow the directions but come up with 1/8" and the bottom mat is 1/2", that's not what I wanted.

2 do you cut mats 2-3 small then the top mat?

3 do you try and center the fall-out(s) on the next mat exactly or just cut everything to fit at the end? (may be answered in question #2

Anyone else having fun? wink
 
Originally posted by JPete:
Framerguy, I think you explained it better here http://www.thegrumble.com/cgibin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=006087
Wow!! Yeah, that was really eloquent! Are you sure that THIS Framerguy wrote that??

(I must have been in one of those rare lucid moments that strike me occasionally.)

Cliffie,

If I understand your rather cryptic 3 "points" correctly,

1. If you start your cuts on the very back mat first and work your way outward to the front mat, you should be OK if you measure out from the cut marks left by cutting the previous mat. IF you want a 1/4" reveal, you need to measure out 1/4" from the cut marks and follow the directions on cutting the next mat. (In my last 'splanation.)

2. This one threw me! I am thinking that you are asking whether to cut mats 2 and 3 smaller than the top mat, eh?? The answer is "YES" always unless you are cutting ovals or using a CMC. YOu always cut the undermats a bit smaller so that you are always cutting with reference to the edges of the top mat. Than all your subsequent cuts will be parallel to those made on the top mat. ('Cause you're using the same set of mat edges to cut ALL the mats)

3. I have no clue what you are asking here, sorry.


FGII
 
I decided to try this once more to try and figure out why my reveals weren't right and took photos of each step to share. There are 10 photos here and since the limit on images in a post is 8, I'm splitting this up into two posts.

mat1.jpg


Here I have an outer mat already cut (green), an inner mat (orange) to be cut and a template. The method used to cut the outer mat isn't important, nor is marking the outer mat for the inner. You can have one or a zillion openings in this mat. I used different margins on all four sides of the opening. The width of the template is not important as long as it fits in your mat guide and leaves room for the reveal. It is important that the two sides of the template be parallel. In a departure from the article, I cut one side of the template with a bevel cut rather than a straight cut.

mat2.jpg


Tape the dropout from the outer mat face up to the face of the inner mat. Positioning isn't very important.

mat3.jpg


Place the template next to the guide bar on your cutter and position it so that the distance from the edge of the template to the guide bar is the amount of the reveal. Place the beveled edge on the side next to the cutter.

mat4.jpg


Place the inner mat in the cutter with the taped dropout right up against the template and draw your lines. See the next picture also.

mat5.jpg


I have turned the template and mat as positioned in the step above over to show how they are lined up. This is the important part. The beveled edge of the dropout is lined up to the beveled edge of the template.

Since I am out of images for this post, I will close this and start another.
 
...Continuing on from the last post...

mat6.jpg


Now cut the inner mat using either the lines drawn or line up the mat dropout-bevel to template-bevel that is still in place.

mat7.jpg

We now have both mats cut.

mat8.jpg


Place the combined drop out back in the outer mat.

mat9.jpg


Position/tape the inner mat based on the outer/inner dropout as shown.

mat10.jpg


Remove the dropout and we have a well aligned inner mat. This can be repeated for triple mats or multiple openings.

I used an arbitrary reveal (7/16") and measured after I was done to see how much it was off. This time it came out correct so I it appears that my first attempt wasn't done coprrectly.
 
This is in answer to a private message from a grumble member who had a question on lining this up for multiple openings. You need to use a seperate piece of matboard for each inner opening. In the example above if I had a 4 opening mat with a green outer and orange inner, I would have one piece of green mat and 4 pieces of orange. Each piece of orange will be self aligning using this method.
 
That's IT. You youngsters ALL need to learn how to cut mats on a Keeton like Wally and me did. Heck, I was given an excercise that involved cutting slits in a matboard without a guide or stops, and I was not allowed to cut a customer mat until I could do it perfectly 10 times without an overcut. If any of you distributors out there want to sponsor it, I'll be happy to teach seminars about the joys of old-fashioned mat cutting (sans guide and stops)at any of the upcoming trade shows.
P.S. unless you can do this, there is no way you'll ever be able to do any fancy surface v-grooving like I do :D
 
nice phaedra chronomat mat cutter there Larry! I just ordered one and it's due in any day. I've been putting off cutting mats (including some triple mats) for the last few days in anticipation. or maybe that's just procrastination. ;)

How do you like yours?
 
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