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Tried two ways to clamp a big mitered frame and the difference was huge

I had to glue up a 4 foot by 6 foot picture frame for a built-in. First try, I used my regular bar clamps across the corners. It was a fight to keep it square and the joints slipped. The next day, I cut some scrap plywood into blocks and used them with band clamps on each corner. The frame went together flat and stayed dead square with almost no fuss. The band clamp setup took maybe 15 extra minutes to make the blocks, but saved me over an hour of fixing and sanding. Has anyone found a better trick for clamping big miters without buying a special jig?
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2 Comments
mason_craig34
I've tried the masking tape hinge trick on smaller frames and it works okay, but for something as big as a 4x6 foot frame, I found it didn't have enough strength. The weight of the long pieces just pulled the joints out of alignment for me. I had better luck with corner blocks and strap clamps, just like the original post.
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the_wyatt
the_wyatt23d ago
Oh man, I read about using masking tape as a hinge before gluing.
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